The Sun in My Dark Night
by taylortasteyy
Summary: What would have happened if Bella hadn't jumped? Alice hadn't seen her and Edward had never run off to the Volturi. What happens when Edward comes back to forks to beg Bella to come back to him and finds that she has moved on to be with Jacob?
1. Numb

OK, so this is a story about what would have happened if Jacob had caught Bella before she had jumped off of the cliff, so Alice hadn't seen it, and Edward would not have gone to the Volturi. So basically, this is what would have happened if Edward had never come back into the story, so if you re on Team Edward, you might as well just exit out of this page now:) Likewise, if you are on Team Jacob or even Team Switzerland, you're gonna just love this.

enjoy.

by the way, this is my first fan-fiction, so harsh critics and good ratings are encouraged.

The story starts off pretty much in the beginning of New Moon where Bella finally wakes up out of her trance-like state, and then I pretty much made it up from there.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, the plot, and the twilight series world, and everything else related to twilight, is owned and copyrighted by Stephenie Meyers. And me writing this, it isn t my way of saying that I don t like the way the Twilight series ended, because that is definitely not the case. I am a Stephenie Meyers fan all the way. But when I finished eclipse, I was left with tears in my eyes because I couldn t decide whether I wanted Bella to be with Edward or Jacob, and since Stephenie has already written what happened when Bella Stayed with Edward, I am here to say what happened when Jacob stopped Bella before she jumped.

**Preface: Bella**

Four months? It s only been four months since....wow. I could have sworn that it had been longer. For these last four months, it had seemed like there was a plastic film blocking...no, protecting every one of my senses from feeling and emotion. I had been numb, an empty shell.

Charlie had already tried kicking me out to Jacksonville with Renee, but it wasn't happening, I wasn't leaving Forks without...him. But now that this "plastic film" had been removed, it was scary. It was like I had been asleep for these last four months, and I've all of a sudden woken up from an impossibly deep slumber.

Four months ago, at my 18th birthday party, I had given myself a paper cut, and Jasper, being the newest and least committed Cullen to the whole vegetarian lifestyle, had attacked me. And for the next few days after that, Ed-- _He_ had wallowed in remorse, until he had finally come to the decision that he and his family would move away from me, because it would be in my best interest. He said, It will be like we never existed. Psh, I thought, how could he have promised me this? When he of all people knew how much our relationship, He, had impacted my life?

Well, whatever his intentions it left me scared and helpless. I missed the thoughtful, sensitive man he was behind his wallowing, god-like, gorgeous _STOP_, I told myself, _this has to stop._

**Preface: Jacob**

She was hollow, broken. Any blithering idiot could see that. My Bella, my best friend, the one person in this whole, wide world that understood me even better than my dad. God knew how much I wanted the chance to help her pick up those broken pieces of her heart and put her life back together. But there's no way she would let me do that. She was too independent. Goddamnit, Bella! Why did she have to be the suffer in silence type. There was no point in trying to hide it anymore; anyone could see that she had gone through something life-changing and traumatic.

That blood-sucking leech. What was his name, Edmund, Eddison? Edward. That's it. The bastard's name was Edward. Did he not see through her facade? She is strong, there's no doubt about that, but the way he just left her here, all by herself. She was strong, but also fragile at the same time. That makes absolutely no sense, but that's Bella for ya.

**Awakening: Bella**

It was the same old thing every single day. Get up, go to school, come home, and cry myself to sleep. Then I would start over.

But not so much anymore. Now that I wasn't numb and totally oblivious to everything that went on around me, that wasn't the case. I was itching to do something. I'd been bumming around the house for about five months in a row now, and I had so much pent up energy that it would have been great just to do almost anything that would keep me from being bored and thinking. Thinking was bad for me nowadays.

Because when I got to thinking about things, I tended to think about things that were not making my situation any better. Thinking about things like blood, vampires, birthdays often led to thinking about people such as Alice, Emmett, Carlisle, Esme, Jasper, yes even though Jasper had attacked me, it was still hard not to love him, Rosalie Amongst others. Yes, even Rosalie. Even though whenever I was around her, hostility just rolled off in waves, I couldn't bring myself to not miss her. And thinking about the Cullens often had consequences. Like the hole in my chest.

It wasn't a literal hole in my chest, just a generally empty feeling that I had developed ever since they had left. The pain was so bad that it felt like them leaving had ripped a hole in my upper body, complete with ragged edges that threatened to swallow me whole. It hadn t gone away, not one bit, but it seemed like the pain had just gotten a little bit easier to bear.

Urgh, there I go thinking again. Huh, I chuckled to myself. Since when has thinking become such a bad thing?

"What's so funny, Bells?" , Charlie asked, interrupting my thoughts. The look on Charlie s face was one of sheer hope. There was no telling when the last time I had genuinely smiled or laughed at something. Wow, I don't even think I could remember the last time I had enjoyed myself.

Wait, yes I could. My birthday party, before--

"Bells?"

"Huh? Oh, what?" I hadn't really understood what he said. Things kinda just went in one ear and out the other nowadays.

"I said, what's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing. Just something somebody said today at school." It was a bad lie, I was a bad liar, but I was praying to God dearly that he believed it. Prayers weren't something that frequently crossed my lips.

"Really?" Charlie asked skeptically.

"Really really." Uh-oh.

"That s weird, because today's Saturday."

No way! I was scrambling for something to say, some kind of excuse for this bad lie. I frantically looked towards the calendar, hoping dearly that it wasn't really Saturday, that Charlie was just mistaken, but sure enough, it was Saturday. "Oh," I piped up, "That must have been yesterday. My, how time flies." God, Bella, that was weak.

"Yeah." I could tell that Charlie didn't believe me, but thankfully he didn't voice the fact. The awkward silence just got worse and worse until it felt like it would never end. Then, thankfully, the phone rang.

"I'll get it," I said quickly, itching for some excuse to leave the table. "Hello?" I asked, a little bit out of breath from rushing to get the phone.

"Bella! Just the person I wanted to talk to!" Ah, Jacob. He was always so cheerful, it was refreshing to hear his voice.

J"acob? Wow, it's been a while since we've talked. It really had been.

"Sure has. Too long in my opinion. Anyways, so listen, there's a Mariner's game on today in a couple of hours and I was wondering if--" he seemed like he was starting to get a little bit nervous? I wonder why... "--if maybe you and Charlie wanted to come over."

He rushed through the words, eager to get them over with and get an answer, I guess. "Sure, Jake, I'd love to. But hey, lemme call you back while I talk to Charlie about it, kay?"

"Alright, bye, Bells."

"Alrighty then, bye Jake," I half said and giggled. He was so silly.

I walked into the den to see Charlie flipping through the channels on the TV. Looking for some type of game, perhaps.

"Who was that?" Charlie asked.

"That was Jacob. He called to see if we wanted to go over there and watch the Mariners game later today."

"And what did you tell him?" Charlie asked, looking a little bit suspicious.

"I told him that I would call him back after I talked to you about it. I mean, I don t know about you, but I think it would be nice to get out of the house for the first time in a while."

"Oh, you do, do you? Well it seems like a pretty good plan to me. Why don't you just go ahead and call him back and tell him we ll be there in, oh about half an hour or so."

"Okay, I'll do that," I said. I could feel a huge grin spread across my face, but I couldn't help it, I was just...happy. Happy to get out of the house, happy to go see Jacob, and happy that I was no longer sitting around doing absolutely nothing.

I went into the kitchen, called Jake back to tell him we would be there soon, and then trudged up to my room to get ready.

**Jeez, She Sounds Awful: Jacob**

I really hope they can come over. It's been what, about eight, nine months since the last time I'd seen her. You'd think that after that long, I would have gotten over her. But that smile, and that pale, creamy, translucent skin. It was just something I couldn't forget. Something that I didn't think that I could ever forget.

Was it just me, or did she sound different? Sort of tired, but also, fragile. I don't know, maybe she just sounds different over the phone. That happens, right?

Ding-dong. Yes! She's-- They're finally here. Wow, I really needed to stop thinking about them in a singular manner. It was Charlie _and_ Bella, not just _Bella._

I didn't even need to say that I would get the door, because it was pretty much implied since Dad was in a wheelchair and what not.

When I went to open, the door, I was expecting a smiling, beautiful, radiant Bella, and her always husky-looking dad, Charlie. Can't forget Charlie. When I opened the door, it was a shock. A really big one. Holy crap. She looked worse than she sounded. She was still beautiful, yes. Nothing could ever really take that away from her, but looked awful. That's really harsh, I know, but it was true. She was smiling, but it looked like the whole, being happy thing was new to her. Like having something to smile about was kind of scary. There were dark circles under her eyes, from lost sleep, I guess. She had been slim before, but now she was so skinny that she just looked unhealthy. Her eyes were like an open book. You could see the hurt and pain behind those deep, chocolate brown eyes. And you could see that she was trying as hard as she could to keep herself together. I mean, I'd heard that her and what was his name? Edward. I'd heard that they had gotten pretty serious, but I never knew that their relationship had gotten so....deep. It was just plain pitiful, as much as I would hate to say it.

"So," Bella said, "ya gonna let us in, or what?"

"Uh, yeah. Come on in and make yourselves comfortable." _Jeez , Jake, what's with the formality?,_ I asked myself while mentally giving myself a slap in the face. It's not like they're guests anymore. They're practically family. I'm glad we weren't _really_ family...

"Will do," Charlie said while he pushed past me kind of impatiently. He was halfway down the hall way when he turned around with a determined look on his face. He made sure that Bella was safely out of earshot before he took a deep breath and sighed.

"Jake, can I talk to you for a minute?" Oh gosh, this wasn't gonna end well. I knew that the party had gotten a little wild last night, but it's not like I had gotten piss drunk or anything. I only took a couple of shots and drank a couple cans of beer...

"Yeah, sure. What do you need, Charlie?" I had I pit in my stomach, like the feeling of getting caught. Wait, not _like_ the feeling of getting caught, but it was _the_ feeling of getting caught.

"I just wanted to thank you for inviting me and Bells here tonight. Mostly Bella. She hasn't been out for a while since the Cullens left, depressed about her boyfriend leaving, I guess. But she really needed this, so it's good that she's getting out of the house, even if it is just to come over here and watch the game."

Whew, what a relief.

"But, I also wanted to tell you, that if you are planning anything, if you want to date Bella, or do anything that would possibly get her emotionally involved, you better not hurt her. She's been through a lot so far this year, and I don't think she could make it through another break up. So if you hurt her in anyway, emotionally physically, whatever, I am warning you now, there will be consequences. But, Jacob Black, being my best friend's kid, I do trust you. Don t give me a reason not to." He finished that last sentence with a smile. How encouraging. That makes me feel loads better.

"Yes, sir." I replied. Wow. That wasn t intimidating at all, I thought to myself sarcastically.

So, after that little pep talk Charlie gave me, we walked into the den. Charlie settled in a recliner, like he always did. Me, knowing that Bella wouldn't have any fun watching the game; I invited her to come to the garage so that I could show her my pride and joy. My Volkswagen Rabbit. Nevertheless, she agreed, thankful for an excuse to leave the room.

As we were leaving, Charlie gave me a very conspicuous wink, and Billy gave me a smile. Oh great, Bella's the observant type. She surely would have seen that.


	2. More Than Useless

**Okay, I added and re-wrote a bunch of stuff in this chapter. So I hope you like it. I've just been trying to go back and add alot of fluff. But not useless fluff. Important fluff. haha. I hope you like it.**

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What the--?: Bella

"Uh, Jacob, what was that? I saw that little wink coming from my dad." That's weird, very out of character for him. They were up to something, that much was clear.

"Nothing " Jacob said. That reaction was a little bit too quick. Something s up, I just have to figure out what.

Today was a cloudy day, just like pretty much every day in Forks, Washington. Sunshine and cloudless skies were never to be expected, and when they did come along, it was a pleasant surprise. Today was bleak and grey. Just like almost every other day in Forks, Washington. Perfect weather to match my mood. Grey and bleak. There was absolutely no hope of having a good hair day here. Not that I had cared lately. For the last six or seven months, I hadn't given a crap about my hair. But now that I was doing things again, I realized that I needed to do something about this mess of hair on my head. But of course, the moment I decide that my days of ponytails and buns are over, the weather was like this. I could just feel my hair poofing up underneath my hood. Great. Just great.

Then my thoughts drifted back to the whole wink thing Charlie had done back in Jacob's den. "No, seriously, what was that?" I persisted.

"Uh, if I tell you, you re probably going to hate your dad for life, so I m thinking maybe I should keep my mouth shut here," Jacob said with a smile creeping across his face. Then he finally gave in, saying, "Alright, if you really want to know, Charlie was telling me that you haven t been out in a while since they left, and that it was good that you got out of the house, even if it is only to come over here."

"Oh. You were right. I am going to kill Charlie for this." I started to stomp back to the house, but I felt Jacob arms wrap around me. Boy, was he _hot_. And not in a swoon over him way, but like literally hot. He was burning up!

"Oh no you don t. You re not going anywhere. If Charlie finds out I told you, I m not so sure he would be too thrilled with me." I guess that made sense. But if Charlie kept telling people embarrassing things like that about me, we were seriously going to have to have a little talk, police chief or not.

"Fine. Whatever you say, Jacob. By the way, are you sick or something, because, you're burning up!" It was weird. He didn't look any different. Maybe just a little bit more mature and taller. Okay, so maybe he was _alot_ taller. He was already taller than I was when we had been re-introduced last year, but now he simply _towered _over me. But then I thought about that for a moment. Maybe he just _seemed_ hot to me. After all, I was used to ice cold arms around me at night.

That memory brought up hundreds of others. Very painful others. I immediately wrapped my arms around myself, before my mind could take me on a very paiful trip down memory lane and open up this hole in my chest that was always there, just waiting for the moment when I am alone in my bedroom before it opens up, and the rest is history.

There was an akward moment in the conversation, and Jake quickly recovered by inviting me out to his garage to see all of the progress on the car that he was rebuilding. He told me all about it on the way there. After he told me that the car was a Volkswagen Rabbit, he went into all these details about parts and stuff. I was lost, but I listened all the same. I had been out to see the car once before and then it was only scrap metal and rust and random parts.

When we got out to his garage, which was a make-shift combination of a shed and one of those aluminum carports put together, I saw that there were parts scattered all over the place.

"Wow, Jake, this baby's really coming along." And it really was. I could see how proud he was of his handy work.

"Yeah, but I still have tons of stuff to do to it. Maybe you can keep me company while I work on it from now on?" It was more of a question than a statement.

"Yeah, that would be nice," I said with a smile. And it really would be nice. Me and Jacob, lifelong buddies just sitting in his garage drinking soda while he worked on his car and we chatted. It was amazing how Jacob managed to manipulate all those parts and tools in his gigantic hands, and put them all together like some sort of jigsaw puzzle.

The game would be over shortly, but I hoped Charlie would let me stay a little longer. After all, it was only four o clock, and it s not like tonight was a school night. Or, maybe he could at least drive me home and let me bring my truck back up here. Either way, being here with Jacob was fun. I felt oddly flamboyant. When I was around Jacob, laughing just seemed to come naturally to me. It's like, when I was around Jacob, all the stuff that I had been through in the last year _almost _didn't matter. It was like there had been no such thing as vampires, and that I was just a normal girl hanging out with her friend.

But even though it _felt _like that, I still knew that that wasn't the case.

When the time came to leave, which wasn't until about 11 at night, we all said our goodbyes, and I told Jacob that I would be up here around noon tomorrow, if it was alright with Charlie and Billy. Sure enough, they both said it was alright with them. Having no doubt in my mind that Charlie had told Billy about what he said to Jacob, it wasn't hard to guess what his answer would have been anyways.

**I like the sound of that: Jacob**

She's proud of my work. I liked the sound of that. Well, she didn't come out and say it, but I could tell. The pride was there. It was more implied than said.

As the weeks went by, Bella and I were growing closer. Weeks turned into months, and I could tell Bella was healing. She wasn't there yet, not even close, but it's a work in progress. Every now and then when a certain subject was brought up, she would wrap her hands around herself, seemingly unconciously, as if to keep herself together. She was doing that a lot less often nowadays, but every now and then, I had to change the subject to keep her from breaking down.

But I knew it was coming eventually. Something would happen and it would hit her. Hard. Half of me wanted to be there when it did. I wanted to be there for her then because that would be when she needed me the most. But the other half wasn't so sure. I didn t know what would happen if I was to see her like that. I might not like it because she wouldn t want me to see her like that, and I don t know how much pain I would be in to see her in that kind of pain. Either way though, it wouldn t be good.

Ever since Bella and I had started to hang out, my grades had been slipping, I don t know how Bella keeps her grades up when not only is she spending almost all of her free time here, but also in the state that she s in. Billy told me that until my grades went up, I wasn t allowed to hang out with Bella in the garage.

So for an entire week, which really isn't all that long, but when you really like somebody, it can seem like an eternity, Bella and didn't talk. Not once. And it was pure torture to me. While I was busy feeling sorry for myself, I was also worried about Bella. She needed me. And that wasn't the smug guy in me, it was the truth.

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**So, i think this chapter is alot better now. and its not quite as...bland. So...let me know what you think about how I re-did the chapter, which means reviewing, people!**

**3**


	3. She Will Be Loved

**Okay, I got a few complaints about how shallow the emotions of my characters have been, and now that I look back again, I do realize that they were. So, I did as much as I could with this chapter. I hope it's a little better. And untill I add some stuff into all of my other chapters, I won't be doing another update, sorry, but i think it's necessary to do it.****

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**Hellooo? : Bella**

Since Jacob had been banned from seeing me until his grades were up, I was plain scared. I had been getting better since I had been hanging out with him on a daily basis. But what would happen when I couldn't see him? Would I be worse off than before? Now that I had begun to remember what living was like, and having now had a taste of being happy again, would the nightmares and things get worse?

The days passed slowly, and surely enough, I was going downhill. The nightmares were steadily coming back, and becoming more and more intense as the week crept onwards. EVery night i woke up screaming, as I had been before. And the first night, Charlie rushed into my room because I had not had a nightmare in a couple months now. After I told him that it was just a dream, he stood there for a few seconds, and walked back to his room down the hall. After that, Charlie didn't even bother getting out of bed, because he knew what was wrong.

I was sitting at the table eating some cereal when an idea hit me. _Duh!_ I didn't know why I didn't think of it earlier. We didn't always have to hang out in the garage. We could alternate between watching hanging out in La Push and hanging out at my house.

I rused to the phone to tell Billy about my plan, and he reluctantly agreed, but he had agreed nonetheless. Jacob wasn't able to hang out untill the weeked, and tomorrow was friday, though. But even just knowing that I would be able to see my best friend tomorrow was enough to keep me from falling deeper into this pit of despair that had been waiting to swallow me up.

Even though I had only been withought Jacob for a week, it had been long enough to assure me that I needed Jacob in order to keep healing. It sounded selfish, I know, but that wasn't the only reason I kept him around. He was my best friend.

Some of my friends at school had gladly taken me back from when I was in my zombie-like state. I still had Angela, who was always there as a comforting reassurance, her boyfriend Ben, who pretty much is into whatever Angela was into, Mike, who I had a feeling wouldn't care either way, and Jessica some of the time. When Lauren wasn't busy gossiping with Jessica, we would talk. But only when Lauren wasn't around. See, Lauren and I did not like each other at all, and I just did my best to avoid her. Jessica was still a little mad at me for pretty much igonoring her and being a total anti-social for four whole months, but she was pretty easy to be friends with. As long as you knew where to nod and what not when she was jabbering, you wouldn't really have to talk much at all.

It was a Friday night and I was doing my usual four to eleven shift at the Newton s family owned store, when I got a call on my cell. What do you know, it s Jacob!

"Hello?" I answered kind of quietly. Mrs. Newton had never said anything about talking on a phone while working, but I was pretty sure that she wouldn't be too happy about finding me on the phone while I was supposed to be working.

"Bella? Hey what are you up to?" Jacob sounded really happy, happier than normal.

"Uh, Jacob, I told you I have to work tonight till eleven." I hadn't meant to sound so rude, I just wanted to hurry up and get off the phone before somebody saw me.

"Yeah, I know." It was obvious that my sudden hostility hadn't fazed him one bit. Jacob just never gives up, does he?

"Alright, well will you go ahead and say what you need to say? I m not trying to be rude, but I don t want to be caught talking on the phone when Mrs. Newton comes back from her break." Wow, that did sound a lot meaner than was intended.

"Fine then, be that way. Hey do you want to go to the movies tonight? There's this awesome zombie movie out in theaters. It starts at eleven thirty, wanna ask Charlie if you can go? Or do you want me to call and ask him?"

Oh gosh. Movies. That s never good. Even with scary movies, there's always at least one couple in love and what not. I guess I could try. But it is a zombie movie, and Jacob isn't the type to watch romance. You know what? I think I ll go. Charlie was right, I hardly every go anywhere anymore (besides Jacob s house, that is.)

Yeah, that sounds good. I just hope it will turn out good.

"Alright, then. It s a date." It was weird, but Jake sounded both all too wrong and all too right saying that statement. Then the line went dead. I closed my phone and stuck it in my pocket just as I heard Mrs. Newton walk in the door.

"How ya doin there, Bella? Holdin down the fort?? Mrs. Newton was a nice lady, her son, Mike, was too, but he was just a little pushy, and overfriendly. But they were a generally nice family.

"Yep, everything's just fine here. Where's Mike, I thought he went on break with you?" I could have sworn I saw them go out of the store and get in the car together. Hmmm .

"Oh he did, but he started feeling real sick, so I decided I'd let him go him. He was getting sick to his stomach, and he was all clammy. He didn't look too good. Say, I'm probably going to get out of here in about, oh I don't know a half our? Would you mind closin up for me? I know you ve only been here for an hour, but I ll still pay you for the whole shift?"

"Uh, no. I wouldn t mind one bit Mrs. Newton. Go take care of Mike. OH, and could you tell him I said to get better soon?" Mike could be in a pain in the rear sometimes, but I still hated to see him like this.

"I sure will, honey, and thanks again, you ve been such a help ever since we hired you."

"Oh, it's no problem," I said. And it really wasn't. The earlier I got off the more time I got to spend with Jake.

As soon as she walked out the door I headed to the back to get the keys and lock up shop for the night. I just felt kind of bad for getting seven hours worth of pay when I only worked for one. As I was walking back to the keys, I was pulling my phone out of my pocket to call Jacob and tell him that I was going to be a couple hours early. But as I was dialing the number, I could have sworn I heard a little woosh and saw a flash of red hair.

"Hello?" No answer. "Helloo?" I asked a little bit louder. "Anyone there?" Hmm, guess not. A shiver ran down my spine. It was probably just that I was all alone in the shop, and I was getting paranoid. But the shade of red that I saw reminded me of something, but I couldn t quite place it. _Victoria_. The..._Cullens_ had told me that since she had lost her mate, James, she would be after me. _How_ could I have forgotten about her? If she really wanted you that bad, she would have already done something....Right? And they wouldn't have just left me here all by myself if there was still a threat like Victoria? Would they? Just call Jacob, tell him you're on your way, lock up the shop, and leave. But still, I couldn't help but think about her. Stop it, Bella. You're just freaking yourself out.

I quickly changed subjects in my mind. It was all to painful to think about The Cullens. Or anything to do with them for that matter.

So I took a few calming breaths and called Jacob, and he said it would be fine and that he would just look to see what times the movie came on to see if there was a show we could catch.

So when I turned off the lights, I pretty much ran to the door, set the alarm, and I was out of there.

When I got to Jacob s house, he was looking even happier than usual. Huh, I wonder what's with him.

**This is it. Today is the day: Jacob**

This is it. Today is the day. Today is the day when I am going to tell Bella how much I'm in love with her. But when? I know I need to wait for the perfect moment and all that, but I didn't want to wait and wait and wait, and then the night be over before I knew it. You're kidding yourself, Jacob. She's not ready for this. No, no, no, this wasn't a good idea. If you tell her you're just going to scare her away, and that would be even worse than having not told her. But, it was torture not having her know how I feel about her. I was in love with her, I couldn't deny it. I wanted to help her. I wanted to be the one who picked up the pieces of her broken heart, and put them back together. I wanted to hold her and kiss her and love her. I wanted to be with this girl for the rest of my life.

What to do, what to do.

Either way, I was feeling a little weird about today. Sort of like I was about to get sick, but also like something was going to happen today. Uh-oh. That cant be good, because normally my bad feelings are right.

I heard Bella's truck coming from at least a mile away. It was wierd, I had been hearing even the slightest things lately. _Whatever, _I told myself, _you're probably just now noticing these sort of things. _So I decided I would go to the door and wait for her. The anticipation of what I was going to say to her was just too much to bear. I was getting all nervous, which was something that almost never happened to me, and while I was standing there, Billy rolled up in his wheelchair and just stood there looking at me funny. Since I was all worked up about today being "the day" and all that, it really annoyed me. He was looking at me sort of like he was expecting me to do something irrational.

"What are you staring at?" I asked him, you could easily hear the irritation in my voice.

"Nothing son. Chill out," he said while putting his hands up defensively

Grumpy old man. Something s wrong with him. What? I don t know, but something was up.

Before I knew it, Bella was pulling into the driveway and clumsily making her way out of her truck and up the driveway.

"Heey, Bella! How was work ?" I asked while pulling her into a bear hug.

"Can't--- Breathe-- !" She said while trying to breathe.

"Sorry, must not know my own strength." It was true. I didn t mean to hug her that hard. And it didn t seem like I was hugging her that hard. But then again, she was a small and fragile girl. I would have to be careful from now on. I didn't want to break a rib or anything. Jeez. But I also couldn't help myself. Every time I saw her beautiful face, and the soft ringlets of her mahogany hair, I just wanted to hold her and never let go.

"Yeah, obviously," she replied with a smirk on her pretty little face. "You're a little bit peppier than usual. What's up?" Oops. She had obviously noticed something was up. I would have to be more careful about exactly how much emotion I convey to her.

"Uh, nothing. What do you mean? I don't feel any different. Well, I sort of do, but not in--I'm just gonna shut up now, hahah" Come on, Jake.

"Hahaha yeah, you do that," she joked.

So we went to see the movie at 5:45 instead of eleven thirty, and the movie was awesome, by the way. But towards the end of the movie, I started feeling queasy. And it wasn't because of all the blood and guts. That part was on point. As soon as the movie was over, I suggested to Bella we leave immediately, trying not to show how bad I was feeling.

It was starting to get a little late, so I decided that it would have to be now or never. So I took a deep breath, and worked up the nerve to tell her.

"Bella?" I asked. Here goes.

"Yeah, Jacob?" I got a good look at her, and realized that she's just not ready. Sure, she was getting a little better. She had gained almost all of the lost weight back, and she looked like she was sleeping a little better, but I can't do this to her. Not now. The realization hit me, and it hurt, but not as much as it would to see her in the amount of pain she was in a month or two ago. So I decided that it would have to wait.

"I'm glad we got to do this." I had to try really hard to put a convincing smile on my face, and I was hoping that she bought it.

She didn't believe it at first, but then she smiled that beautiful smile of hers and gathered me in a gentle hug.

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**So, I hope this one was alot better than the origininal chapter. there wasn't much i could do with it, but i really tried. im also going to be adding alot to all of the other chapters, i hope, so like i said its gonna be a day or two before i get a new chapter up. But let me know what you think about it now.**

**3**


	4. Requiem For Dissent

**Okay guys. Hey, I'm sorry about not having quotes and apostraphes in my chapters, something happens when I uploaded it from notepad to here, but I'm using Word now so that won't happen anymore. Okay, so 'kouga's older woman' left me a review saying, "Poor guy he gets a date and gets sick!" And I thought that was really funny. And you'll find out why soon. Not in this chapter, but i think it'll be the next one. And I know the updates are coming quickly now, but after a few more chapters it's gonna be longer between each chapter I put up here. See, I already had like 16 pages of story in Microsoft word before I started posting it. But anyways. I'm getting tons of hits and no reviews. What's up with that?! Come on now. As a writer who would like to make a living off of writing eventually, getting no reviews totally bruises my ego.**

**BUT, since I'm sure more than half of you have already either stopped reading my Author's note and gone on to the story or have gotten seriously frustrated with my ranting, enjoy:)**

**It would be easy. All I had to do was turn my head: Bella**

The movie was actually really good. It didn't have any lubby-dubby scenes, and that was just fine with me. When the movie ended, Jacob suggested that we go ahead and hurry up home, though I don't know why.

As we were nearing the Blacks' house, we passed a cliff that opened up to a magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean. I was used to looking at the ocean when I passed it going to and from Jake's house, and out of habit; I looked to my left just in time to see a teenage boy about Jacob's age jump off of the cliff into the dark, rough ocean below. What was even stranger was that the other boys that were standing there, presumably the boy's friends, didn't do anything but watch!

"Oh my god!" I screamed as I slammed on the brakes.

"Jesus, Bella! What's the matter?!" Jacob's face was filled with panic.

"Did you not just see that kid jump off the cliff?!" I was pretty much having hysterics by now. "His friends aren't doing anything but standing there and talking!" I said as I was getting out of the truck to run over there and see what their problems were. But I hadn't ran five feet when Jacob was around the truck and had his hands around my waist.

"Bella! Bella wait. It's fine." I'd heard what he said without really hearing what he had said.

"What are you talking about Jacob, that kid just jumped off a cliff!" And at that Jacob just started laughing. "How could you? And all this time I thought I knew you! You're nothing but—"

"Bella? Will you give me a second to explain?" Jacob's voice was husky yet gentle.

"Explain what?! There is nothing to explain" My hysterics were slowly dying down. If something was really wrong, Jacob would have been freaking out just like I was. Jacob looked angry and stiff, but it seemed like it was about something else, not the fact that somebody had jumped off of a cliff.

"Bella, that guy who jumped off the cliff? He's perfectly fine. People do it all the time. It's for recreation. Look, you see that person walking there? That's him. He's okay." Jacob was still holding me around the waist. To my surprise, it felt kind of nice.

"Oh..haha…I knew that." I was so embarrassed. I didn't know what to say.

"Sure, sure." Jacob gently turned me around so that we were facing each other. _Was it just me, or was he holding me closer than was necessary?_ Even if he was, I wasn't going to pull away from him. This embrace was kind of nice.

"See? Anyways, I think we should go." A hostile look was creeping back into his eyes as he stared at one of the boys in particular, the tallest and oldest looking one. He seemed to be in control of the entire situation. The one in charge. I looked back up at Jacob, who just looked on at the boys in disgust.

"Why are you so eager to leave?"

Jacob took what felt like an eternity before answering my question.

"These guys just aren't the type of crowd I want you to be around."

I didn't know why he was so adamant about not liking this group of seemingly innocent boys. They seemed like they were innocent, and I didn't get the feeling that they were up to no good. However, I didn't press the matter.

When Jacob got out of the car, he hesitated, and then said, "Do you have to go now? It's only 8:15. Plus it's a Friday night."

I thought for a second. Charlie wouldn't mind if I stayed an hour or two longer, surely not once he found out that I was hanging out with Jacob.

"Sure, but let me call Charlie just to make sure. You can get back in the truck while I ask, if you want." Sure enough, Jacob got back into the truck, (which was a little too short for him, since his head almost brushed the ceiling.

I talked to Charlie about it for a couple of minutes, and surely enough, he said yes. _Surprise, surprise._

But one question was still floating around in my head, as it had been for a few minutes now. The curiosity was eating me to a point where I didn't think I could stand it anymore. I finally gave in to my curiosity and worked up the courage to ask him.

I asked him about it,about why he didn't like those boys over by the cliff and slowly he started to explain why. He explained that the leader, Sam Uley had been sort of brainwashing these boys. They hadn't been up to anything suspicious; at least, it hadn't been proved. And that it had him scared, this sort of gang thing going on. It had a few of the boys in La Push acting funny, and when he tried to tell the council of the reservation about it, they just brushed his warnings off, saying that Sam was a good kid and would never do anything of the sort. And now, Jacob's friend, Embry, had been hanging out with them lately and had changed.

"Oh, Jake! I'm so sorry! I had no idea!" I gathered Jake, or as much of him as I could fit my arms around, into a hug. I didn't know that something had been bothering him. He had never even let on that something was bothering him. "Why didn't you tell me?" I didn't want him to think that he couldn't share these kinds of things with me

"Well, I never really thought it was that important," Jake said with a shrug.

At that moment, everything just felt…right. Holding Jake, even though I was getting a little hot here in his arms, was perfect. It felt natural. Like it was meant to be. And then I realized that, it was meant to be. _We_ were meant to be. If there had been no such things as vampires, we would have been together. I could feel it. We were made for each other. This thought came into my mind painfully, but come into my head it did nonetheless. And even though we had only been hanging out for a few months, I loved Jake. Whether I loved him as a friend or if it was more, I couldn't tell. But I loved the carefree teenage boy I was holding either way.

And then I thought about the responsible man that had left me, and my love for Jacob was dwarfed by it. And it felt wrong to be in a pair of warm arms with russet skin rather than ice cold, hard arms that were and alabaster pale color. And even though he had left me, for whatever the reason, I was still in love with him.

And that was the difference between what I felt for Jacob and Edward. I loved Jacob, but I wasn't _in _love with him. A rather in-original line, I know, but that was the case. But Edward, I was in love with. I loved him uncondtionally and irrevocably, and nothing could or would ever change that.

Unfortunately enough, vampires _are_ real, and so, me and Jacob would never work out. And I knew Jacob wanted it. Heck, _I _wanted it. But I just wasn't sure.

Making a relationship out of this would be easy. All I would have to do is turn my head and let our lips touch. And then another realization hit me. I wanted it. I wanted our lips to touch, to feel Jacob's warm arms embrace me. I wanted to have a kiss where I didn't have to be careful. I wanted to be able to explore Jacob's mouth. And I wanted to show Jacob that I loved him, even if I wouldn't be able to love him to my full ability.

I decided that if I was going to do something, I needed to do it fast, before I lost my resolve.

So, I easily turned my head, and our lips met. I could feel surprise take over his features, and then happiness. It was different being kissed by warm lips, in comparison to the cold, hard ones I was used to.

As the minutes went by, the passion in the kiss grew and grew. Surprise painted his features for a second, and then he kissed me back. I was eager to see what it was like to kiss somebody without reserve, so I ran my tongue over his lips and he let me in without hesitation. I explored ever inch of his warm mouth, while he did the same. I tangled my hands in his long hair, not wanting the kiss to end, but knowing that it had to eventually, because we _were _human and we had to breath. It wasn't until we were both dying for breath that we had to pull apart. When our lips separated, we put our foreheads together, not wanting to pull away any farther than was necessary. Neither of us said a word, and the heat in the air couldn't be explained in words. As our breathing and heartbeats slowed down, the silence in my truck became deafening.

"Wow," is all that Jacob said.

**Wow: Jacob**

She was holding me, and all I could think about was how much I loved her. And in that moment she turned her head and touched her lips to mine. Shock ran through my body for a split second as I realized exactly what was happening. She was _kissing _me. Me!

Before she could pull away, I quickly began kissing her back, because who knew when or even if this would happen again. When she ran her tongue across my bottom lip, just asking for entrance, I let her in without hesitation. I wrapped one arm around her, holding her as close and tight as I could without hurting her, and I cupped her face with the other. The kiss was slow, but still almost painfully intense, but all together, it was perfect.

I'll admit it, I had imagined this moment a million times in my head, but I never thought that it would happen. She was just too broken for something like that to happen. I didn't think she would ever heal completely, but I was trying my hardest to change that. And I could see that I was helping her. Every day, I could see that she was getting more and more rest at night. All the weight she had lost was slowly coming back, and the circles under her eyes were going away little by little. She was healing right before my eyes.

But still, as much progress as she had made, she still didn't look, much less act, like she was ready for another relationship. But that kiss…that kiss…it totally contradicted everything I had observed about her.

I still couldn't believe that she had picked me. _Me_ of all people.

This situation was just getting more and more awkward. One of us had to say something, or I felt like I was going to explode.

"Wow," I repeated, "That was…ha." I really didn't know what else to say. Being speechless was something that didn't happen to me very often, so I didn't know what to do.

"We should probably get to your house. It's getting pretty dark," Bella said. I looked up at the darkening sky, and nodded my head in agreement.

She didn't look like she was in a state to be driving, so I offered to drive as we reluctantly pulled our foreheads apart.

"You want me to drive?"

She thought for a minute, her breath returning to its natural rhythm, and nodded while saying, "Yeah. You should probably drive," with a chuckle. God, she's cute.

She opened the door and walked around the front of the truck and crawled clumsily into the passenger side while I scooted into the driver's side. Her cheeks were flushed a deep mahogany color, but even so, I found her completely adorable.

When the door finally shut I put the truck in gear, since it had been running the entire time, and hit the gas. We had been driving for a couple of minutes when the engine started to whine and we started to decelerate.

Of course, the gas. This truck was a gas guzzler as it is, but it had been just sitting here running for at least fifteen minutes, and with the A/C on, the gas had just been drained.

Bella looked alarmed. She really did, love this old truck, didn't she?

"What's happening?" she asked, a little bit panicked.

"You're running out of gas. Ergh…We're gonna have quite the hike." It was at least a twenty minute drive, no telling how long of a walk it would be.

"Oh great," she said sarcastically. "This is gonna be fun."

"What, you don't want to walk home with me?" I said with a grin on my face as I reached my hand out to her, hoping to God that she would take it.

She took my hand with a smile on her face.

**Ahh. Don't you just love kissing scenes? Especially the ones between Bella and Jacob?  
****Ya ya.**

**REVIEW! Yeah, you see that little button down there, hit it, bop it, do whatever.  
Harsh criticism is a w e s o m e by the way.**


	5. Don't Forget to Remember Me

**Hey guys! I'm updating again yayy! So, this is gonna be a really good chapter, I think. We're gonna find out alotta stufffff. By the way, this was a very hard chapter to write, and it was very hard to make all the timing and stuff line up, so if it has a few mistakes, be sure to lemme know in a review. ;)**

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****Crap. I've been so forgetful lately: Bella**

Out of gas? No way! I could have _sworn_ that I just filled up the truck the other day. _No, that was last week._ I really must be out of it. The days had just been blending together lately. Well, not really lately, but for the last four or five months.

So, when Jacob held out his hand for me to take his, I smiled widely at him, and took his hand in mine. The kiss had left us breathless and in ecstasy pretty much.

We walked in silence for at least ten minutes, jsut enjoying each other's presence like we always did. This was fun, but it gave me way too much time to think. What did kissing Jacob mean? Were we together? I'm definitely not ready for that. Should I say something about it? And if I did, what would I say? I was just freaking out mentally. I didn't know what to say.

After that, we sort of chit-chatted. We talked about random things, like the weather, how we were gonna work out the whole "studying thing", but we didn't really talk about anything serious, despite what had happened earlier. As we were on our way home, I started to realize that Jake's hand was really hot, and that my own hand was sweating in the hot embrace of his gigantic hand.

And now that I noticed it, Jacob wasn't looking so good. It seemed like he was rushing to get back to his place, and that he was running an awfully high temperature. But maybe his hand just seemed hot to me because I was used to holding a marble-like, cold one. As we were talking about his car, one of Jacob's favorite subjects to talk about, and ear-splitting howl pierced the night, and it sounded very close. Jacob looked directly towards the sound, his features alert, but I could still see the fear in his eyes.

He looked at me for a few seconds and then dashed over to the truck to get something. He stuck my cell phone and my keys into my arms before sweeping me up into his arms as if I weighed nothing. I was amazed at how fast Jacob could run with the extra 110 pounds or so of body weight, but he seemed as if my burden hardly fazed him. I looked up at him with a million questions. How was he carrying me so effortlessly, and did he honestly think he could keep up this pace all the way back to his house, especially carrying me?

When we got back to the Black's house, Jacob was a little out of breath, but nothing like he should have been.

"Well, you sure take the phrase, 'swept me off my feet' literally, don't you?" I said, with humor coloring my tone. But Jacob didn't seem at all amused by my little joke.

"Haha, yeah," there was absolutely no humor in his tone.

"Wow. How did you--?" I didn't know how to finish this question.

"I...don't know. It was just kind of an...adrenaline rush. I don't know. Those wolves sounded pretty close, I didn't want anything to happen to you." Jacob seemed genuinely worried about me. That put a smile on my face for sure.

"Bella, I think you should get home," Billy said, seemingly coming from out of nowhere, "I don't think Jacob here is feeling all too well. It was nice seeing ya, hon."

I looked at Jacob, and he was shaking. Sort of like he was cold, or like he hadn't eaten all day. But he had eated popcorn at the movies, so I knew it wasn't because he hadn't ate in a while.

"Yeah," I said slowly, "I guess I should. I'll just go call Charlie and ask him to pick me up and get my truck towed in the morning." As I said this, Jacob looke at me like he didn't want me to go, and he looked scared senseless, which I was sure he was.

I was so worried about Jake as I was talking to Charlie. When Charlie said that he'd be over in a minute, I rushed back to the living room to see how Jake was feeling. He still wasn't looking to good when I went back into the room. When I came back, Jacob was quivering a heck of a lot more than when I had gone into the other room to talk to Charlie

With my newfound passion for Jacob, I was extremely worried. Billy was trying desperately to calm Jacob down, though I don't know why. Sure, Jacob was scared, but who wouldn't be? If I'd started shaking like that, I'd be scared. But Billy wasn't trying to comfort him because he was scared, he was acting like Jake was a ticking time bomb ready to explode. I wanted to comfort Jake, but Billy being my dad's best friend, I didn't want it to be in front of Billy.

I asked Billy if we could have a few minutes alone, and Billy didn't want to agree at first, but after a few moments of Jacob and I both looking at him, he gave in, thinking that it would be best for the both of us.

"Bella—" Jacob started, but I interrupted him putting my hands on both sides of his face and saying, "Jacob, I don't know what's wrong. But I'll be here tomorrow, I promise. Just get some rest and call me tomorrow, kay?" I was speaking softly, so that Billy wouldn't hear us talking.

"Promise?" he said through his labored breathing.

"Yeah, I promise." My voice had broken at the end, but I couldn't help it. Jacob just looked so helpless right now. It was unnatural for him.

Charlie was calling me on my cell, and I answered him, saying "I'll be right out

I swiftly gave Jacob a kiss on the forehead, pulled my hood over my head, and ran out the door, tripping twice on the way to Charlie's police cruiser.

**What's happening?! : Jacob**

We were walking when a loud howling sound pierced the sky, and it was close, and I knew we had to get out of there. There was no way I was going to let Bella be this close to a pack of wolves, or anything else that could hurt her.

I looked at her for a few moments, and then decided that I was going to get her out of here myself, even if I had to carry her the whole way. Thinking quickly, I dashed to her truck, pulled out her cell phone, and pulling the keys out of the truck, I shoved them in Bella's arms, and picked her up in my arms, honeymoon style. I figured she would weigh so much more than she did, so I was expecting this to be a whole lot harder. But holding her gave me the adrenaline rush I needed to get all the way home. I was athletic, so the running part ordinarily would have been doable, hard, but doable. This time, though, evem with all of the extra weight, that run was beyond easy.

I ran all he way home with her in my arms, and I was alot more winded than I let on, but still, a run like that should have been way harder. I was just glad that we were out of there.

I looked down at my hands, and they were shaking, and now that I noticed it, my entire frame was shaking. Not bad, but sort of like I was shivering because of the cold or something. I just shook it off, telling myself that my body was just tired from the run.

Bells and I were outside talking, and I was about to tell her how much I cared for her, and how much that kiss had meant to me, when my dad rolled out onto the porch and told Bella that it was about time for her to go home, and that I wasn't feeling too good. What kinda crap is that? I felt fine, maybe a little out of breath, but I didn't feel sick or anything. I was getting so pissed off at him lately. Then the more rational side of me spoke up. My dad wouldn't have lied like that out of nowhere. He must have a good reason for doing it.

So, I put my hand on the small of Bella's back and led her inside.

When Bella excused herself and walked into the kitchen to call Charlie, my body started to quiver even more. I laid down on the couch, because I was seeing black and red on the edges of my vision and felt dizzy.

When Bella got off the phone, she promised me that she would be back to see me tomorrow. And I really hoped she could keep her promise. I know seeing her would make me feel that much better. We sat just looking into each other's eyes for a few minutes untill her cell rang and she gave me a quick kiss on the forehead and was out the door.

My dad rolled himself into the den quickly and looked me in the eyes.

"Son, you're going to have to calm down and listen to me. Can you do that for me?"

I wasn't in any condtion to talk, so I just nodded my head feverishly.

"Okay, I realize now that I should have told you this sooner, but this is no time to dwell on the past. You are a descendant of a clan of men who could…turn into wolves. It sounds crazy, I know, but you'll have to trust me on this one. You are about to phase for the first time into your wolf-form. We as Quileute descendants don't know for sure what has caused this, but we believe that it was the presence of the Cullens being here. All the stories that you have heard about the Cullens, well, they're true. The Cullens _are_ vampires, and with their have being so many vampires in the vicinity, it set you off. What's about to happen is, you are going to phase into your wolf form and you will not be able to contain your emotions and actions, so you will have to concentrated as hard as you can to control everything you do.

"You know Sam, well, he and all the other boys have already gone through the same process, they are waiting in the woods for you. They will be there to help and guide you as you explore everything there is about being a shape-shifter. And, stay away from Bella and anybody you love, because even if you don't mean to, you could hurt them."

What? What is he talking about? I would never hurt Bella. Or anybody I loved for that matter.

I couldn't think much after that. A burning hot feeling was running up and down my spine and the edges of my vision were blurry and red.

It felt like my entire world was coming apart at the seams.

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**You likey? Yeah, I know you do. See, I liked this one, because we start to see how Jake has been turning slowly but surely into a *dun DUN DUUNN* wolf.**

**Aand, you start to see just how much Bella cares for Jacob.**

***sigh***


	6. Germs of Perfection

**Soo; I hope you like it. This one took me a little bit longer to write. And I fluffed up alot of the previous chapters. (Starting at Chapter two.) I didn't think that the first one **

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**Uuh. I don't feel so good. : Bella**

After promising Jacob that I would be back to see him tomorrow, I hurried out to Charlie's cruiser, tripping twice on the way there of course. I tried as best I could to hold myself together for Charlie's sake, but I guessed that he had seen right through me.

"What's the matter, Bells?" Crap. I'm such a bad…actor.

"Jacob got sick all of a sudden, and my truck ran out of gas. Do you think you could get somebody to tow it for free…I'm running a little short on money right now…"

"Yeah, I probably can."

I'm sure Charlie wanted to say more, but since the both of us weren't all that big on talking, he must have decided that the conversation was over.

The short ride home seemed like hours. I already knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight because I was so concerned about Jacob. But this was something that I welcomed, as it would give me a break from the terrible nightmares I had been enduring for the past six months or so.

That night was terrible because, as much as I feared having those terrible nightmares return to haunt me, the night seemed to drag on forever.

As much as I tried to fight it, sleep eventually overtook me. I could remember that I had to stay up for something, but what that something was wasn't very clear.

I had a nightmare tonight, as I did every night, but this time it was different. It didn't involve me running around to try and find an Edward that I knew I wouldn't be able to catch. And it didn't involve me being utterly and completely alone.

_I was walking through the woods near the La Push, hand in hand with Jacob. All of a sudden he started to shake violently like he did earlier that day._

_Edward came walking through a gap in the trees with a concerned look on his face. I was flabbergasted by each perfect, beautiful part of his face that my all too human memory had failed to remember. It was like seeing him for the first time._

_I heard a terrible ripping sound beside and where my Jacob had been standing only moments ago, there was now a massive, russet-colored wolf standing there growling towards my perfect Edward._

_A ferocious snarl marred Edwards's god-like features into a mask that I had only seen once. That was in the alley back at Port Angeles what seemed like so many years ago._

_As both Edward and the wolf that was where my Jacob had been began to lunge for each other, I ran and put myself in between the two creatures that I loved so dearly. I didn't know for sure why I felt love towards this wolf, but I just did._

_They were both still running towards each other, as if I wasn't even there. I knew in that instance that I was going to die. _How stupid_, I thought to myself, _there's no way you can put yourself between these two unbelievably strong creatures and live to tell the tale.

_I was both mentally and physically bracing myself for the moment when both inhumanly strong creatures would meet and me be in the middle, when all of a sudden the entire scene faded to white and I was pulled out of my dream._

I didn't wake screaming like I usually did after a nightmare, just feeling like I was about to puke my guts out.

I ran to the bathroom, not caring if I woke Charlie up or not, and I got there just in time as a whole days worth of meals came up again. I suddenly felt very bad for Jacob, because he was probably going through the same thing I was.

I felt Charlie's reassuring hand on my upper back as I continued throwing up. When I was finished, well, when there was nothing left in my stomach to come back up, Charlie felt my forehead to see if I had a fever.

"You're a little warm. Do you want me to call the doctor?"

"No," I said raggedly. "I'll be fine, but thanks anyways, dad."

"No problem honey. I'll go get you a glass of water."

I never knew when he came back, because I just kind of laid down on the bathroom floor and drifted. The cold floor on my face was welcoming, and so was the sleep that was dragging me under. I was a little worried about my nightmare continuing, but it didn't, and I slept the best that I had in at least seven months.

When I woke up, I didn't feel quite as bad as I had the night before, but I still didn't feel too hot. My head was pounding, and my body was sore, from lying on the floor all night presumably. There was a new glass of water and some painkillers on the counter. Charlie's unspoken love was touching.

I got up after sitting there for a few minutes, took the painkillers, and decided to go lay in my bed.

While laying in my bed, that strange dream was all I could think about.

Edward being in my dreams was nothing new, but this was the first time Jacob had been in them. Where did that wolf come from in my dream? One minute it was my Jacob, and the next it was this gigantic wolf. I mean, that thing was _huge._ It was the size of a horse, but shaped like a wolf. It had had russet-colored fur, the exact color of Jacob's skin. And now that I think about it, it had Jacob's same dark eyes.

_Impossible, _I told myself._ Jacob isn't a wolf._

Since it was obvious that I wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep, I decided to get in the shower and start on breakfast for Charlie.

**Four Days Later: Jacob**

Okay, so I was wrong about Sam and all those other guys. They aren't as bad as I thought. Except Paul. He tended to have a temper. I was just glad that I had them and that I wasn't going through this alone like Sam had.

When my dad was telling me all this stuff about the Quiletes being able to turn into wolves, I thought he was crazy. But as he kept on talking, I started to believe him. I mean, it's not like he would lie to me.

Either way, it had taken me four days to calm down enough to phase back into my human form.

For the first few hours, I was the most worked up by the fact that I was hearing voices in my head. That couldn't be normal, even if I am a…would we be considered werewolves? We could change whenever, not just at the full moon once a month.

Sam had explained everything to me. We were a pack, and even though I didn't know much about the other guys, we were connected by an unbreakable bond. I gotta say, though, the worst part of phasing for the first time was hearing all of these different voices in my head. Now, they weren't voices in my head like a crazy person would experience. When in wolf form, I could hear the thoughts of all the other guys in the pack, and they could hear mine, too. That part I didn't really like.

Sam told me that it was probably kissing Bella that set me off. I also found out that being incredible tall, really warm, healing faster, and being incredible in shape were part of being in shape. That explained why I was able to make that run with Bella in my hands. He also explained that the howling I heard was Paul. Paul tended to have a temper.

Finding out all of this was great, except for one, well maybe two things. One, this wasn't all that big of a deal, but I had to cut my hair. This was for a practical reason, of course. The longer the hair on our heads in human form is, the longer the hair all over our body in wolf form is. And sometimes having long hair just got in the way.

The other thing was a huge deal to me. Since I was new to the whole wolf thing, theoretically, my self control should be crap. But everybody had said that mine was great, like I was a natural to this. But I was not to be around Bella until I was in full control of my body. This could take anywhere from a few weeks until a few years to accomplish. I all but begged Sam to let me see her, saying that she needed me, but he still said no. The authority in his voice could not be ignored.

I couldn't just leave her like that. I was pretty sure that she knew my feelings for her, just not the full extent of them. But even so, this wasn't going to turn out well. She looked bad enough from that week we had spent apart, but a few weeks to a few years? And I knew that I had to do this for her very own good, but still, I think that if I can control myself as well as I can now, then I would be fine around her. I would never hurt her. Ever.

I also knew that Sam had a very good reason for enforcing this rule. Another thing that came with being a shape-shifter, was immortality. Well, temporary immortality. As long as we kept phasing, we would not age. But there was a thing called "imprinting". That was when one of us found the one that we were meant to be with. And the person that we imprinted upon would be made for us.

Same had imprinted on Emily. I'd only known her for a few days, but she already felt like a mother to me. Emily and Sam had been together for a few years now, only a few months longer than Sam had been phasing. The first time Sam had phased, Emily had simply been too close. He had scratched her, and bad by the looks of it. She was still beautiful, even though one side of her face had been marred by scars. I could see what it did to Sam every time he looked at her. I had never seen anybody look at somebody else like that. You can just _feel_ the love in the house when you walked in. It almost made me sick. In an odd sort of way.

But I would never do that to Bella, I was sure of it.

There was no way she would be able to come back from that.

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**So i hope you liked it. It wasn't quite as long as i though it was, but I like it. The next few are going to be longer, i promise...but theres a catch. its gonna be longer between each update, because i have run out of what i had already written. so everything that is coming out from now is brand new. but let me know what you thought about this chapter!**

**do you think i got the dream sequence right? howabout all the wolf stuff? lemme know!**

**-love, tastey:)**


	7. My Own Prison

**Hey, sorry this took a little while, but it is way longer than I normally make chapters, because of all the setting up I had to do. I have some big plans for future chapters;) I know its getting a little bit boring, but bear with me, if you keep reading, you will be rewarded. And thank you to all of you who review, whether it be praise or constructive criticism. Because It realyly warms my heart to know that yall care about how the story goes, and wanna help me make it better.**

**And, I have been forgetting to put this in my author's note for a while now, and I wanna go ahead and do it before i get in trouble for not doing it. DISCLAIMER: All recognizable characters and events in the plot belong to Stephanie Meyer. I'm just putting the "What if's" out there.**

**enjoy:P**

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I tried calling Jacob after making breakfast for Charlie and having some cereal, but all the phone did was ring, and ring, ...and _ring_. I figured that maybe the reason for nobody answering was because maybe they had gone to the doctor. So I shrugged it off and went upstairs to check my email.

While my aged and decrepit computer wheezed to life, I worried about Jacob. Someone almost _always_ picked up the phone.

My computer was finally working, and while I was waiting for the slow dial up connection to log me on, a fidgeted nervously, not knowing what to do with myself.

It had been a while since I checked my email, so there were a few from Renee. I opened them all up and was shocked, because instead of sounding like an email from a mother to her daughter, it was more like a diary entry. Renee' told me about her week, and about how Phil was doing and how great Florida was. I instantly felt guilty. I must have been so...non-responsive that she just decided not to bother asking me questions and took to telling me about all the things she did. I figured that she had become pretty worried that I had not emailed her back in a while, so I wrote her a longer email than usual, now that I actually cared enough to do so.

I replied saying:

_Dear Mom,_

_All that sounds great. I'm so glad that you're having so much fun in Jacksonville. The weather must be great._

_I'm sorry for not replying to you so soon, I've just been really busy lately. I've been hanging out with Jacob Black. You do remember the Blacks, don't you? Jake is Billy's son. We've become really great friends lately. We went to the movies yesterday, and saw a scary movie. It was a pretty good movie._

_I was thinking, maybe I could come down for a visit soon? I mean, the sun and weather sounds great, and believe it or not, I've gotten at least a shade or two paler. But I miss you. And Phil._

_So how _is _Phil? And what about his career? He must be doing better since ya'll settled down. _

_Well, I have alot of home work to get to, so I look forward to your reply._

_I miss you, so so much,_

_Love, Bella_

My mom would be so relieved to hear more from me than just comments on her day. And the idea of visiting had been kind of spur of the moment, but sounded like a great idea. Maybe I needed a little more sunshine in my life...

And that had me on the subject of Jacob again. I figured that I should call him again, because between cleaning up the kitchen, packing Charlie's lunch for the first fishing trip in months, and emailing my mother, it had been about and hour and a half since I called them. Surely that was long enough for them to have been to the doctor and back...Right?

But, at the same time, maybe I was just too worried. I could be a real worry wart sometimes.

Since Charlie was out on a fishing trip, the house was unually quiet. This was the first fishing trip that Charlie had been on in months. While I was in the midst of my...what, depression?, he had not been fishing, due to the fear that I would do something irrational. I knew that I would never have gone _that _far, but apparently Charlie did. I felt bad that he had to stay home and quit something he loved because of me, but I couldn't help it.

I couldn't stand having the house this quiet, so I went upstairs to get a few CD's to put in the stereo system. I chose four of my favorites, Muse, Linkin Park, and a mixed CD of some of my favorites from the 80's.

After doing all that, I went to the phone. Before picking up the phone, I stood there for a few minutes just thinking. I didn't want to be a nuisance, but I was really worried. I had promised him that I would be over to see him, and I wasn't one to not keep my promises, since I rarely made one that I couldn't keep.

So I picked up the phone and dialed their number, and waited. It rang on forever, and right as I was about to hang up the phone, a voice came over the phone and said, "Hello?" It was Jacob!

"Jacob! Hey, it's Bella. How are you feeling?" He sounded exhausted. I should probably just leave him alone and let him get some rest. I figured that he was probably feeling better than I was, and I was still feeling a little queasy and weak, because the sickness hadn't lasted long, only a few hours, and he had gotten sick before I had. Then again, he had had different symptoms than I did...

"Oh, hey Bella. You know, I'm still not feeling too good. You're okay, though, right? You didn't get sick or anything?" He sounded worried about me. I like that he cared this much.

"Yeah, I did, but only for a few hours. It passed pretty quickly. I'm still a little queasy, but that's about it...How come ya'll weren't home earlier?" The question seemed desperate, even to me, but I was just dying with curiosity.

"We uh, we went to the doctor." Like I thought. But that answer seemed really...stiff.

"Oh? And?" I was hoping that whatever he had wasn't _too _bad.

"Bad news, Bella. He said I have Mono. I won't be back on my feet for a while, about a month, month and a half. And he strictly said, "No visitors" So...I won't be able to see you for a while...I'm sorry Bells..." This _was_ bad news.

"A _month?!"_ That was a really long time to go without my Jacob.

"Yeah, but, I gotta go." I was getting the impression that he was impatient with me. Like I was being really nosy.

"Okay...bye Jake."

"Bye," he said curtly.

_Fine then, rudo._ It was very unlike him to be rude like that. I wondered what had gotten into him. Mono, obviously, I thought to myself dryly. I laughed without any humor. Sure, he was sick and all that, but that still wasn't an excuse to be rude like that.

I tried desperately to keep myself busy. I looked up mono, wanting to know more about it. Sure, Jake had had some of the symptoms, like a high fever and fatigue, but his throat was fine, and I didn't know about his glands and stuff. And it was nick-named the kissing virus. Great. But it could be a month before I showed any symptoms, so I guess I would have to wait and see. It wasn't airborn, or dangerously contagious. Not unless havong come in direct contact with his saliva. And besides, if I was going to get it, I would get it because of the kiss we had shared. I don't see why the doctor made a big deal about having no visitors. Most people knew better than to kiss somebody who was sick.

After doing all that, I worked on my homework, while doing loads of laundry inbetween. All the homework was easy, except for the calculus. But that didn't take long, since I put all my effort into it.

Afterwards, I was left with the rest of the night and all day tomorrow to kill. My room was already spotless, so I decided to arrange my books and CD's into alphabetical order. That took a while, but I still had plenty of time to kill. I looked at my CD collection, and my eyes went straight to Debussy. That album reminded me of both Renee and...._him._ I grabbed it and just looked at it for a few minutes. Against my better judgement, I put it in my CD player and let it play. I turned the volume up louder than I normally would have listened to it, and let the beautiful music fill my head. This music brought up some of what used to me the happiest memories of my life. Now they were just downright painful. I let the memories that I had held back for so long come crashing into my mind. The pain came at me in waves, each wave more painful and unbearable than the last.

My body wracked with sobs and suddenly I was glad that Charlie wasn't here. I didn't want him to hear this. The tears ran down my face as I collapsed to the ground and wrapped my arms around my abdomen, trying hoplessly to keep myself together. After what seemed like hours, I stopped trying to hold myslef together and just let the pain come. It wasn't because I knew I would feel better afterwards, because I knew this wasn't true, but I hoped that soon enough I could cry myself to sleep.

The pain that I had thought was disappearing hadn't disappeard at all. In fact, it had just been waiting, dormant, so that when it had the chance, it could spring back up and attack me with more force than it had before. This time, I was in more pain than I had ever been before.

This pain wasn't just because of Edward, I let myself think the name, because I felt like as long as I was inflicting pain upon myself, I might as well do it completely, but it was also because of Jake. It was because I had just realized that I loved Jake the other day, and because when I had found the passion and done something about it, he wasn't there.

After hours of sobbing and laying on the floor, my entire body felt as if it needed water desperately. If I had felt weak before, it was nothing compared to now. I was simply exhausted. I couldn't find the will in me to get up and walk, so I crawled to the bathroom to get myself a glass of water.

When I had drank a glass of water, I felt like I was able to stand up and walk.

I was walking into my bedroom so that I could get the things I needed to take a shower. Nothing like scolding hot water to clear your head and calm you down.

In the middle of my room, one of my floorboards squeaked under my weight, I stopped walking and back tracked, trying to figure out which board had made the noise. When I found it, I bounced up and down on it a little, and noticed that when it went down a certain amount, the bottom of the floorboard hit something. I immediately went downstairs to get a crowbar and a screw driver to see if I could somehow wedge the floorboard open and see what was in there.

It took a little bit to get in between the two floorboards and lift up the squeaky one, but I managed to do so after aquiring a few splinters here and there.

Inside, there was a pretty box, embellished with gold around the edges of the top, and with a lock on the front of it. I had to rip open a few more floorboards in order to pull the box out.

After a few more splinters and broken nails, I was able to pull the box out and admire it. It was old fashioned, the type of things that I loved. I looked back down into the hole that I had made in the middle of my room, to find that there was an old-fashioned key sitting on the ground where it would have been underneath the box. It matched the box, so I figured that it would fit.

I picked up the key, and stuck it into the lock, took a deep breath and turned the key.

**Maan, I hate lying: Jacob**

I know it's only been a day, but I missed Bella already.

When she called me, I had to pretend, well, _lie_ to her, telling her that I was sick, and that she wouldn't be able to see me for at least a month. Sam told me that we would _see_ if I was in enough control of myself to be around her.

Everyday, I worked at it, testing my limits. I _had _to see her soon. For both mine and her well-being.

This wolf thing was _so_ tiring, though. We were expected to make nightly runs, _all night long._ We wolves were here to protect both our people and others from vampires (the Cullens, way back in the day). But now that there were no vampires to worry about, there wasn't really much to do. We mostly worked on our stamina and learned how to work better as a team. Even though we could hear each other's thoughts in wolf-form, it was still hard to work as a team. We had Paul, who's temper was the worst, and he still had bad self-control, there was me, who was new to this, and there was Embry, who had been phasing for a few weeks now, but was still getting used to it. Between all of this, Sam had his hands, paws, rather, full.

Every now and then, when we would run through the forest in wolf-form, just letting our instincts take over, we would run across this nasty, sickly sweet smell that was so repelling that it was nearly impossible to think clearly. After running into these trails a few times, I asked Sam what they were, and he said that it was the scent of vampires, and that was why the smell was so repelling to us. We could smell it without even being in our wolf forms.

Apparently, the pack had been on high alert lately because there was a vampire around. Not the Cullens, but one that preyed on humans. We had run across trails left by the Cullens that we could tell the difference.

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A couple of weeks went by, and I was a natural at this whole werewolf-thing. I could phase on the run, and my self-control was up there with Sam's. Sam had even let me lead a team when we split up to run the border.

By now, Leah Clearwater had phased for her first time, and was running the border with us. All together now, the pack consisted of Me, Sam, Quil, Embry, Paul, Jared and Leah. Having a girl in the pack was new, and wierd. What was even wierder was hearing her thoughts.

She and Sam had a history. Her and Sam had been dating back in high school, and when Sam phased for the first time, he was missing for two weeks before he could calm down enough to phase back. When he came back, him and Leah were back together, and then her cousin Emily came to visit, and Sam imprinted on her. It broke Leah's heart, and now we had to live with her every thought. We had to live with the pain she felt every time she looked at Sam, and the pain Sam felt every time he looked at Leah. It was just pathetic on her part.

Well, Leah, Quil, Embry and I were running our nightly patrol around the border when we found the same scent we had been watching, well, smelling for. I dug my paws into the ground, coming to a complete stop within two seconds, and everybody almost ran into each other.

The scent assaulted my nose cruelly, and all my vision went red as the hackles on my back rose up to send everybody on alert. I had to take a minute to clear my head before I did anything irresponsible. It was wierd, being the responsible one. With Bella, _she_ had always been the responsible one in the relationship.

_Oh will you shut up about her? _Leah thought. _She's all you ever think about. It's pathetic, really._

_Shut up, Leah_, Quil thought. He knew that ever since Sam had banned me from seeing her for a few more weeks, Bella was a touchy subject for me.

_Oh, _I'm_ pathetic? Really Leah? Do you know how much it bothers not only you, but us, and Sam, thinking _constantly_ about a guy who you know will _never _think or care about you the way you care about him. And you can't even control your thoughts around him. Yeah, we all know what you feel about him, and yeah, it sucks that it happened, but do you think you could do _all _of us a favor and get him _out of your head?

That had come out alot harsher than I had meant it, but every word of it was true.

_Yeah, well you're in love with a girl who doesn't even _see _you. _She was mentally screeching at me. _What, you think she _loves_ you? She's still in love with that bloddsucker. And as much as you try, there's _nothing _you can do about it._

That was it. I growled and threw myself at her as hard as I could. I took her by surprise, and since I was much bigger than she was, we went _flying_ across the clearing.

I bit and clawed at her, not caring what I did to her, just hoping that she knew just how pissed off she made me. She was an annoyance to everybody, and she knew it, but I was just the only one who voiced it. _Constantly._

I could hear all the guys yelling at us in their heads and barking and growling at us, but we didn't stop fighting until we heard Sam's mental voice, and you can't ignore it when the were alpha gives you an order.

_Stop it, you two. _Sam rarely used his alpha power to give commands, but when he did, you couldn't help but listen to him. We stopped immediately, as we could see his figure running into the clearing.

_I _swear, _you two are worse than Paul sometimes! I can't believe you two. Leah, come with me. Jared, Go with Jacob. Now, what about the vampire that's been here? Did nobody think to say anything about it?_

It was rare that there was silence between all of us, but this just happened to be one of those rare moments.

_That's what I thought. Now, Me, Leah, and Paul are going to follow the scent, to see if we find anything. Jacob, you Quil, Embry, and Jared, go run both our side of the border and Forks. I want you constantly communicating, and if you catch another scent that we haven't been on, split up and let me know. Nobody needs to run alone. Now go._

We split up into two groups, my group running overtime to try to make up for all the ground we had to cover. We didn't want to have the chance to miss anything, so I sent Quil and Paul to double back and cover what we had already passed. That way, if anything was to happen, it would be less likely we would miss it.

The night was about over when we came across that repulsive scent again. This time, though, it was stronger, like there had been more than one on the scene. And these definitely hunted humans. We let Sam know, and followed the trail, getting all amped up for a fight. I hadn't seen any action yet, and I had been waiting to do what I had been made to do. Kick some vampire _ass._

None of us were nervous. Everything was almost moving in slow motion. We had all been trained thoroughly for this moment, and it felt right. Vampires were our mortal enemies, and so everybody was itching to have them torn apart. Everything about us was made to defeat the immortal. Our teeth and claws were the only things on this earth that could tear into that cold, hard flesh of theirs. Red colored every one of our ranges of eyesight. Every one of our minds were in sync. We were no longer individuals, but one as a whole.

We came into the clearing to see four vampires. They had smelled us coming, and they had been prepared. But we were just as prepared. One of them, a woman, had fiery red hair and a feline-like face. We'd smelled her before. But this time she had friends. Four of them. One of them. Dark skin and long dreadlocks, he seemed like the leader of them all.

I didn't have time to inspect the others, because a female with pitch black hair and bright crimson eyes lunged toward me, and, caught off guard, I lept out of the way and grabbed her leg, but I was too late. She had already wrapped her arms around Jared and had crushed the whole left side of his body. He collapsed with a yelp, and when he hit the ground, I heard every one of the bones in his body crunch underneath him. We would have to get him back into his human form and to a hospital quickly so that he could heal right.

But before we got to that we had to get rid of these vampires. With a jerk of my head, I ripped the leg off this leech and continued mangling it until it was unrecognizable. The others were on top of her instantly, and sounds like metal bending and groaning filled the air. And while all this happened the other vampires had just stood watching. Not frozen in terror, their mind would be way too sharp for that, but considering whether or not to attack. They were acting funny. Vampires were wierd things, but I was sure that they cared about their comapnions.

And then I realized the reason for them just standing there. I could smell Sam and the rest of them getting close, and with them there, the bloodsuckers would be severely outnumbered, and surely their sense for self-preservation is better than that.

Paul burst out into the clearing and went right for the female with the red-hair, but she was too fast and moved out of his way quickly, and he clawed at the empty air where she had been. Then she took off running. I remembered this one. She had an amazing sense of self-preservation. We had trailed her several times, but had never gotten this close to her.

After she had taken off running, the other two had followed suit withing a second after her. Sam and Leah both chased them for as long as they could, as Leah was the fastest, and Sam was the second fastest after me. While they were chasing after the vamps, all of us had phased back, gotten back into our clothes, and were now trying to calm Jared down enough for him to phase back. It took a while, but he did, and he was screaming a long string of profanities as we tried to help him back into his pants.

We didn't know what was up with Sam and Leah, or how long they would be, so we went ahead and got Jared home so that we could get a doctor to set his bones so that they would heal properly.

Sam and Leah arrived there in their human forms not long after we had taken Jared into Emily and Sam's house, and was laid out on the couch. You could tell that Leah was uncomfortable here, where the love between Sam and Emily was almost tangible, but she dealt with it because, as much as she hated it, she was as much a part of the pack as everybody else.

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Once I made sure that Jared was going to be okay, I left the house so that I could get some time to myself, because I hadn't had much of that time lately. It gave me time to think.

Immediately, my thoughts went to Bella, and how she was probably doing. She was probably heart-broken. Not in the way she had been before, but now that her best friend had left her. Bella had never been off of my mind for the last few weeks, far from it, actually. But I had had to push her to the back of my mind so that I could train my self-control, the sooner for me to be able to see her.

Thinking of her put a smile on my face, I couldn't help it. I could just see her face, her smile. I could almost feel her hand, kind of cool in comparison to my toasty 108 degrees now, in mine. And I could just imagine us walking down the beach like we used to do all the time. The smile on my face faded slowly. Like we _used_ to do. I didn't like that I was now referring to all the time we spent together as a thing of the past.

I was going to talk to her, one way or another. I didn't know how I was going to pull it off without Sam and the others finding out, but I would find a way if it was the last thing I did. Even if it meant going behind the alpha-wolf's command...

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**I think we made alot of progress in this chapter. This chapter was more than twice as long as they usually are. (My chapters are normally around two thousand words, this one was 4,678 words before I saved the authors notes.) I think I like writing long chapters like this. This one got a little bit boring, I know, but it'll get better, I promise!**


	8. Painted on My Heart

**Hey guuys! Sorry it took so long for me to update, I'm still considering doing some other stories, which will both be crossovers, but I hope you liked that last chapter, because I worked really hard on it. And i'm trying to work some action into the story, but that's going to be very hard as the plot hasn't really unfolded. It's not quite there yet. But, I think this chapter is gonna really move things along for the story. But who knows, as I haven't really even begun to start writing it:P**

**So...enjoy**

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**Bella's POV**

When I opened the box, I almost had a heart attack.

In it were all of my physical reminders of Edward and his family. The CD that held all of his beautiful piano compositions on it. The pictures from after my fateful eighteenth birthday. It was all there. He hadn't taken everything. In fact, he hadn't taken anything at all, it was all here!

_What did this mean? _He had said, "_It will be as if we never existed"_ But even now he had gone back on his promise. He had gone back on his promise the moment he made it. It was just that I was only now noticing it. It was a moot point.

The pictures and CD were calling my name. I knew that I really shouldn't. I had already put myself through enough pain today, and that was just caused Debussy, which was nothing but a common interest. What would happen if I listened to the music that had once lulled me to sleep with a smile on my face.

I _had _to. I just _had_ to. I had to make sure that this past year hadn't been a figment of my imagination, that they were real.

I pulled the small stack of pictures out and looked at them as shocked washed through my entire body. I looked at how paifully beautiful his face, no, his entire _being_ was. I had forgotten all of the important, god-like features of his perfect face. I took a moment to memorize ever line and and angle of his face, knowing full well that my imperfect human memory would forget all of the details.

It hurt, doing this. But not as much as it did to look at myself standing beside him. The look on his face in these pictures showed how he had been reserved that night. He was wallowing then. I could still remember that night as if it was yesterday.

_It was the day after my birthday, and Edward was still wallowing in remorse from what had happened the night before._

_Charlie, Edward, and I were sitting in the living room of my house. We had ordered in for pizza, but, as always, Edward wasn't eating._

_I was panicking big time. I had this feeling that everything, every perfect thing about my life in the moment, was going to be over soon. Desperately wanting to savor this time in my life, I excused myself and rushed upstairs to grab my camera and start taking up some room on the memory card._

_It was just light enough for me to be able to take some pictures outside. I took some quick shots of my ancient truck, the woods around the house and walked to the end of the driveway and took a picture of the house._

_I made my way back inside to get some more pictures of more important things. I asked Charlie to take a couple pictures of Edward and I. When he put his arm around me, it was in a very casual way, and that worried me. It was more like he was taking pictures with a friend than with somebody he claimed he wanted to spend the rest of eternity with. After taking two or three pictures of Edward and I, Charlie tossed the camera back. He shoud have known better, because as I attempted to catch the camera, it glanced off my finger and Edward, with his inhuman reflexes, caught it right before it hit the floor._

_Edward suggested that he take a few pictures of Charlie and I, and no matter how reluctant Charlie was, I agreed to it. Standing across the room from him, I could see the distant and remorseful look in his eyes._

I stopped myself from remembering anything more. I was done with this.

I still loved Edward, there was no doubt about that, but now that I had been hanging out with Jacob, now that I had had a taste of what it was like to be happy again, even if it was just a glimpse, I craved it. I was tired of laying around being worthless. This, this _depression_ that had been eating away at me was getting older by the minute. So I was going to do something about it. Instead of just sitting around feeling sorry for myself, I was going to actually _try _to get over them. A part of me didn't want to, but the bigger part of me, the part that loved Jake, the wreckless, natural, care-free Bella wanted desperately to. I was sick of being pathetic. I was eighteen years old, for Christ sake! These were supposed to be the best days of my life. I was supposed to be spending these days enjoying life and being with my friends.

Now, for me, being happy didn't involve going to parties, and being crazy out-going, but it meant spending time with my friends, and doing simple things such as readingoutside on the rare days when the sun was out and there wasn't a cloud in sight. And believe me, those days were _rare_. And since Jacob had decided that he would be and ignore me for basically the last month, I would have to suck it up and do it without his help.

On impulse, without a thought in my head, I raced downstairs and turned on the gas fireplace in the living room. We never really used the fireplace, and I hadn't really ever thought a thing about it, but now all of a sudden I was glad it was here. When the fire had gotten big enough, I threw everything in that box, including the box into the fire. Then the thought processes began to fight their way back into my head.

_What was I doing?!_ A cry escaped my lips as I realized what I was doing and turned off the gas. The pictures and CD that were on fire didn't go out immediately. I waited impatiently for the fire to go out, and by the time that happened, the pictures were unrecognizable, and the CD and it's case just a mutilated piece of plastic. I regretted what I had done greatly. These were treasures that I had savored just a few moments ago, and now I was sitting here staring at them, and there would be no way that I would get them back.

At the moment, it felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders, but at the same time, I felt like that hole in my heart had gotten a little bit bigger and a little bit deeper.

After I had another emotional breakdown that lasted for hours, I looked at the time and realized that it was four in the morning, and that I had been up for almost twenty hours straight. Another wave of exhaustion hit me, and hard.

Walking into my bedroom, I saw the hole in the middle of my floor that was about a foot wide both ways, and started to get worried about how I was going to get that taken care of. I figured that since Charlie wasn't going to come home until late tonight possible early tomorrow, that I would sleep on it and then figure out a way to cover it up. But once my head hit the pillow, all of my problems and worries disappeared for the moment and I sunk into a dreamless sleep. A sleep that I had needed for a long time now.

I woke up at around twelve in the afternoon to a pounding headache, but that was probably from all of the crying I had done in the past twelve hours, so I took some painkillers and took a shower. Coming back from the bathroom, I tried to make sure that I didn't fall in the hole I had made that night--or morning, whatever. Key word being _try._ I still fell in the hole. Cursing under my breath, I got dressed and sat down on my bed looking at the hole and thinking of things that I could do to fix or at least cover up the hole in the middle of my floor in the short amount of time I had.

As much as I hated to, I decided that the best thing to do would be to call Jacob.

When I called, Jacob answered, and he was sounding _so _much better, so I figured he would have no problem coming out here.

When I asked him if he could come out here and help me out, he said that he was just getting up, and that I should call back in and hour or two.

The next two hours had to have been _the longest_ two hours of my life.

I dialed their number, and Billy picked up this time.

"Hey Bells, how are ya?" He sounded sincere enought, but with the way he had been acting lately, I couldn't be so sure.

"I'm good, can I speak to Jacob?"

"I'm sorry Bella, but he's been out with some friends, do you think I could have him call you later?"

"No, don't worry about it...Thanks Billy." Okay, this was just getting _ridiculous_.

"Okay, I'll talk to ya later."

"Yeah, bye," I said curtly. I didn't even wait to hear Billy's response before I hung up the phone

I was going to get some answers from _somebody _one way or another.

I threw my hair into a messy ponytail, put my cell phone and a few other things in a bag, got in my truck and headed over to La Push. I would find out what was up with the Black's if I had to sit there and wait all day long. When I pulled into the gravel drive way, Billy rolled out onto the small front porch with a curious look on his face.

I rolled down my window and told him that I was just waiting for Jacob, and he just nodded and reluctantly rolled back into the house, telling me that I could come in if I needed anything. Now that I was there, sitting in the driveway, I wasn't so sure about my plans. What would he think if he came home and saw the girl that he ditched sitting there waiting for him in the driveway like some kind of creeper?

* * *

**Hey, I'm sorry I didn't get a Jacob's POV in here, but I was just so anxious to get this update to ya'll that I hoped this long Bella POV would make up for it;) aaand if not, then you'll deal. But, I'm not quite happy with this, there's something missing, i can't quite place my fingers on it. I think my timeline is way off or fuzzy for the entire story. But idk, i'll figure something out soon guys, I promise. and I know there's not much action going on, but bear with me guys, I'm really trying to hurry up and get there.**

**You people are slackin' on the reviews. not cool. if you don't start reviewing more often, im gonna have to turn into one of those stingy writers that won't update 'till I get a certain amount of reviews. You don't want that to happen, do you?**

**Plus, I think all my chapters are going to be around at least three thousand words from now on, i'm liking the whole idea of long chapterss.**

**BUT I'm rambling now, and i'm gonna goo, and thank you MaryAliceCullen10566, you totally mad my day with you're review. We need more readers like her in the world...**

**:)**


	9. News From the Front

**So I'm sure you guys were really expecting to have a Jacob POV in that Chapter, but I'm sorry, I just wanted to go ahead and get an update out. This time around, it's only gonna be Jacob's point of view, just so I can get it evened up again. But this chapter is gonna be at least two thousad words, I promise. And, I'm not getting much feed back about my ideas of crossovers, so I'm gonna give you my ideas**

**A crossover between the uglies series (after specials and before extras) and twilight, and here's the basic summary of what it's gonna be like: It's after Breaking Dawn(about 150 to 200 years in the future to be exact) in the world of extreme change. They meet tally and zane, and find out that they aren't the only ones in the world that are inhumanly strong and fast. What happens when there is a crisis, and the Vampires and the Cutters, new rivals, have to join together to fight against this humongous force that is yet to be announced (in other words, i don't know what the crisis will be yet) Sound good?**

**And the other one: A crossover between The Vampire Diaries and Twilight.The vampires meet and are perplexed by each other's abilities and such. The vampires from the vampire diaries are the reneisance (sorry if i spelled that wrong) vampires, and the vampires from twilight are the ancients. what happens when stefan's brother damon becomes a problem for the cullens and the newly formed bond between stefan and the cullens is put under stress because of Damon's eating habits.**

**So what do you think? Anyways, here's what all you guys are here for:**

* * *

**No Wayyy: Jacob**

On first impulse, seeing Bella's truck in my driveway had sent my pulse reeling and put a smile on my face, just like it always used to But after that split-second passed, i felt a sense of dread come over me. She was here for some answers. I'd known she was smart, and that my lame excuses would only keep her at bay for so long, but I still hadn't been able to prepare myself for this moment.

Me and the guys had just come back from an extra long patrol run, because of the recent vampire encounter, so I was both physically and mentally exhausted. I was in no way prepared to deal with this, but I knew the time was coming reguardless, so it was time I suck it up and be a man.

I sent the guys inside to give us privacy, even though I knew full well that they would be able to hear every exchanged word easily. But Bella didn't know that, and she never would. I was sworn to secrecy, unless I found that "certain someone". I was never that lucky, I wasn't going to imprint on Bella.

I stood against a tree trunk near the truck and waited for her to get out. I was desperately trying to keep myself calm, because at the slightest sign of stress, Sam would come running out here and take me away from Bella.

Of course, she pretty much fell out of her truck, silly, clumsy Bella, and I struggled to not laugh. I put a hard mask on my face, all humor completely gone. I wanted to give her a clean break. I hated it with every fiber of my being, but I had to give her up, for her own protection. When I looked up at her, God, she looked worse than she had when that leech had first left her. Had I _really _had that much of an impact on her life?

Thinking about how I had done this to her, my emotions started to get the best of me, but I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, forcing my body to calm down. I wasn't mad at her, no way, it was me.

And then something else was overwhelming me, a feeling I couldn't place a finger on. It was almost as if she was the sun in the center of the solar system, and my world and I were merely planets in orbit around her. I wanted nothing more than to touch her, to feel her body against mine, her lips to mine. I wanted to hold her, and tell her that everything was going to be okay, and, most importantly, that I was never, _ever_ going to leave her like that again. _Ever._

Before I could stop myself I rushed up to her to wrap her in my embrace, but just as I was wrapping my arms around her, I dropped them. I couldn't do this. I couldn't betray my pack like this. I looked into her eyes for a few seconds as the hope and happiness in her eyes dropped, along with my stomach. Watching her being sad like this made my chest feel heavy, it was almost a physical thing.

I couldn't live without this girl.

I couldn't keep myself in check any longer. I gathered her into a hug, kind of roughly, but I had to hold her. She hugged me back with what seemed like all of her strength, and it felt good to be here with our arms around me.

When we finally pulled apart, I looked into her eyes once more, and saw all of her questions, there were a million of them. I wanted to answer them, every single one, and then tell her everything.

I probably should have discussed this with Sam, but I didn't care. I wasn't keeping secrets from her any longer.

She opened her mouth to say something and just put my finger against her soft lips, took her hand, and said, "Walk with me?"

Her eyes widened at that, but she just nodded her head and followed my lead towards the woods.

We walked for a few minutes in comfortable silence until I was _sure_ that the guys wouldn't be able to hear us and then stopped. I looked at her, waiting, because I was sure that she would have a mouthful of things to say. And if I knew Bella, she would be giving me an earful.

Her face started getting all flustered freaked out on me. Her sentances eventually just turned into an unintelligible mess of words. I kind of shrank away from her, but I knew I deserved everything insult she could throw at me, so I just waited it out.

Whe she had run out of breath, she stood there, panting just staring at me in that stubborn way of hers. She was waiting for something.

"Uh...Got any questions?" It was a lame question, but it was really the only thing that came to mind.

"Where were-- How could--Who do you think you are?, what is---?!" She was basically screaming at me, and I knew the guys were never going to let me live this down. I would be lucky if a bunch of wolves didn't come bounding over here in a few seconds, but luckily, they didn't.

"Okay." So, I would be the first to talk.

I explained everything to her, and she took it much better than I could have ever hoped. Well, I guess she was used to knowing about all these wierd creatures, with having a leech for a boyfriend and all.

I figured it was time to introduce her to the pack.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All the guys thought she was cool, but Sam and Paul pulled me over by myself, and I knew I was in for it.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Paul asked. He was losing his temper, as usual.

Before I could answer, Sam interrupted saying, "Paul, I think I can handle this. Go somewhere."

"Whatever," Paul said as he walked away. He ran out the door, slamming it shut. Bella winced at the noise, and looked over towards Sam and I, we smiled at her, and when she smiled back sheepishly, he turned to me and continued our conversation.

"I hope you know what you're doing," he said. Well, it seemed like more than a question than statement, but the alpha authority was ringing in his voice.

"Sure, sure," I said, it was kind of just my line.

"I'm, serious, Jacob."

We all heard the distant rip of what we presumed to be Paul's clothes as he phased, and then the even more distant howl that went with it. We all heard it, but Bella didn't, and I was glad. I wasn't sure if she was ready to be around us in our wolf form.

"Yeah, I know you are. Too serious in my opinion." I was just messing with him now.

The look in Sam's eyes was hostile all of a sudden.

"Sam, chill. Yeah, I know what I'm doing. We can trust her, 100%. I promise."

"Mhm, sure."

"No, Sam, I'm serious this time. I think...I...," jeez, this was kind of...embarrassing? "I think I might have imprinted on her."

"Oh," Sam's tone abruptly changed. "_Oh."_

"Well then," Sam started, "that certainly changes things. Have you told her?"

"Yeah, everything." I was pretty sure I hadn't forgotten anything.

"Even about the whole imprinting thing?"

"Well....I told her _about _imprinting, but not that I thought I had imprinted on her. I wasn't entirely sure at the moment, but now I'm pretty sure."

"Mhm, and how did she take it."

"Amazing." I couldn't help but stare at her. She was getting along fairly well with the guys, it looked like. Maybe this wasn't going to be as hard as I thought.

"I think you should tell her," Sam suggested, pulling me out of my reverie.

"Huh? Oh, I already told her remember?" What the hell was he talking about?

"No, I mean you should _tell _her." Of course, I knew Sam was right, but I kind of didn't want to tell her. Would she just let me down easy? Saying that we were just friends, even after what had happened so many weeks ago.

"Oh....Maybe some other time, I think it's a little early for that. Don't you think she'll be overwhelmed? I mean, first she gets told that there _are_ such things as werewolves, and then that one of them can't live without her? No, I can't tell her now." But oh, how I wanted to.

"Oh, and by the way, Jacob, I'm proud of you."

_Wait, what?_ "For what?" I asked. I had no idea what he was talking about.

'"Your self-control is amazing. If I'd know how good your self-control was, I would have let you see Bella, and I'm sorry for keeping you away from her like that."

"Oh, uh...thanks, and, it's no big deal."

The way she bonded with the guys instantly was just magnificent. It was like she belonged with us, and, since I had supposedly inprinted upon her, then she wa_s_ a part of this pack, not only would I love her, but all the guys would too. And Paul would eventually come around.

* * *

**Okayy sorry, I know it was a bit short, but I promise the chapter will be wayy longer next time. OH and im sorry it took so long. I had a severe case of writer's block and loss of motivation, but then i re-read my story and fell in love with it all over again. So, the next chapter will be both Bella and Jake's POV. But Bella's is especially important, because we all wanna know what she thinks about Jacob being a werewolf, im sure. And I just barely made the two thousand word mark, but, I'm glad I decided to push it, because I think I added some cool schtuff to the story. anyways, i love all the reviews & such i'm getting, but i'm just not getting enough!**

**& you see that button down there, ya know, the pretty little one with the word "review" on it? yeah, hit it!**


	10. Cities of Night

**Sorry, I know this was another slow update, but i just got home (I stay with my mom during the summer) & everything's been a little hectic. But here it is, an update. Now we get to see what Bella thought about everything, and thanks to the ONE PERSON who said ANYTHING about the crossovers I was thinking about writing. & thank you twlilitisvictim who's reviews had me rolling on my ass laughing. I don't really have much to say so...here it is!**

* * *

Okay, so I never expected the "were-wolf" thing, but, it was possible right? I mean, I knew there were vampires in this world, so I guess werewolves weren't that bad.

Meeting up with Jacob was great, because even though we had been apart for nearly a month, and though we weren't alone, I still felt the emotion that I had in my truck that night.

All the guys kept looking at me funny, kind of like they knew something I didn't. But there were things that Jake had left out, things that were to be kept between the pack, so, despite my burning curiousity, I didn't ask. While Jacob had been talking in the corner to...Sam and Paul, I think it was, Paul had given me the death stare and run off, and as soon as Sam was done with him, I _was_ going to find out what that was all about.

All the guys were great. They all introduced themselves and the ones with girlfriends introduced them too. They all _towered _over me. Maybe it was just werewolf thing, but it was going to take some getting used to.

Sam and Jacob kept glancing at me every now and again, and it was getting a little bit wierd. I thought for sure that they were talking about me. When Sam walked off, Jacob looked at me, and I excused myself from Embry and Quil, and went to be in Jacob's arms. I heard some scuffling of feet as they all walked out the door and the door slammed, I flinched, but Jacob didn't care.

I pulled back because I was starting to sweat, but as soon as I did, Jacob smashed his warm lips to mine, I instantly entangled my hands in his now short hair. He deepened the kiss, running his tongue around ever inch of my mouth. We were both short of breath, but we didn't stop. I never wanted this moment to end.

I started seeing things, wonderful things. Us getting married, moving into a small, but comfortable house in La Push, red with a black roof as all the house here were. Us laying in bed, both gently stroking my rounded belly. I was glowing, and so was Jacob. I pulled him closer to me, if that were even possibly. More images started flashing faster and faster to me, along with my frantic heart beat. I could see kids with dark hair and skin running and playing, and Jacob with his arm around me, him having stopped phasing years ago. He had the ghosts of wrinkles around his eyes, and his hair was graying around the edges. And lastly, us walking down on the beach, like we always did. Looking up at Jacob in this little day dream of mine, his hair was long again and gray, with wrinkles playing around the corners of his eyes as he beamed down at me. We were hand in wrinkly hand, growing old together.

Tears began rolling down my face, and, Jacob's hand being cupped around my cheek, he felt them and then pulled away, I reaching up onto my tippy toes in order to prolong the kiss, much to no avail. I couldn't really tell whether these were tears of joy or tears of distress.

I realized that everything that I had seen in my "vision" were things that couldn't have happened had I been with Edward. This made my chest heavy, making it way harder to catch my breath. When with him, I hadn't wanted these things, but now that I knew I could have them, I realized that subconciously, i _had _wanted them, _badly._

I looked up into Jacob's eyes, and his were deep black, piercing into mine, trying to read me. "Bella, what's wrong?"

To be honest, I didnt' know. I knew how much it hurt Jacob to see me like this, so I tried to pull myself together and stop these tears from betraying me.

"Nothing's wrong, it's just all _right_. It's an idea that hasn't crossed my mind in a while, that's all," I said trying to erase this look of agony from his face.

It had the opposite effect. Jacob looked, if anything, more upset than he was before.

"Bella, this, us, we're not going to work if you won't let me in," he said with a pained look on his face. "What's bothering you, Bells?"

"It's just...don't freak out, okay?"

"Yeah...okay, tell me Bella"

"When you are with me, I'm free. I'm careless, I'm comfortable, safe. It's just that, with you, I can do things that with...Edward, would be a no no. With you I can lead a normal life. I don't have to worry about you having self-control, and you're honest. You'll never lie to me, even when I'm in danger. We've seen our share of ups and downs, and how quickly life can turn around. But when we're walking on the beach, or...sitting in the garage, I'm home."

The look on Jake's features made a complete 180, and he gathered me into a tender hug.

"Bella, Bella, Bella....You are amazing."

We must have stood there for at least an hour, or so it seemed.

He pulled away grabbing my hand and took off for a walk on the beach, as this was one of those rare sunny, warm days in the Pacific Northwest.

We spent most of the day talking, walking, and basking in the sunlight. It was on the top ten list of best days of my life, hands down.

As the sun started to set, we reluctantly started making the trek back to Jake's house. It wasn't a very long walk, so we did what we could to prolong it, because we both knew that Charlie would be expecting me back soon. We walked as slow as we could, but still ended up at the house sooner than both of us wanted. It was barely dark, but i had been basically ignoring Charlie and his need of dinner, and i couldn't not make him dinner much longer or he would likely starve.

We were walking up the long dirt driveway when Jake stopped in his tracks. I looked up at Jake and then followed his gaze to see two people standing beside the porch. One of them I recognized as Sam, and the other, who was a girl, I didn't. The girl was beautiful, in the same natural, woodsy type of way Jacob and all the people on the La Push Reservation were, but she looked like she wanted to be anywhere from here.

**Jake:**

What the _hell_ is she doing here? Since when has it been cool for her to just show up at my house and chill with the guys?

"Come on, Bella, I'll drive you home," I said, while heading for my car.

"Jacob, don't leave." This was a command more so than a request, and I couldn't deny the alpha-male.

"Sam, what is she doing here?" I growled at him.

"_She _is right here, and can hear ever word that you say." Leah said. "So who's the girl?" she asked her expression fading from anger to curiosity.

Bella, being the sweet girl she is, walked over to introduce herself to her with her hand out. "Hi, I'm Bella." Bella stood there for a couple of seconds, but Leah insisted on just staring at her like she was stupid. Bella sheepishly returned her hand to her side and came over to stand slightly behind me.

"Jacob," Sam started, "Leah phased a couple of days ago, and has just changed back to human form today."

"...Okay?" I said. And I cared, why? Leah was a bitch, and everybody on the reserve knew it. She had an attitude and could never stop ogling me ever since her and Sam broke up.

A few years ago, Leah and Sam were a couple, they were so lubby dubby and all that good stuff...then one day Sam disappeared. He was gone for a little over two weeks, and Leah we worried sick about him, but when he came back, he was...different. Him and Leah got back together, but things were just never the same. So, one day, Emily, Leah's cousin comes to visit, and it's all history from there. Sam imprinted on Emily, and Leah's been bitter about it ever since.

Great. Juuust great.


	11. Shame on You

**Hey guyyys. I know that last update that went out took FOREVER, but i had a severe case of writer's block and a sever case of no free time, but I've gotten freshly inspired. I hope you like this one, because it was kinda difficult to write. Buut, i think I'll be starting on some of my crossover stories, and at the same time keep updating this one. I hope you like it (:**

* * *

**Bella:**

I didn't get it, what was so wrong with her? She seemed to have a little bit of an attitude, yes, but everybody has bad days, right?

That's what I thought, until I tried introducing myself to her. I'd at least tried being nice to her, which was more than she could say for herself.

Ha, the phrase "if looks could kill" came to mind. I didn't realize that I had laughed out loud until Jacob looked at me as if I was crazy and asked what was funny.

I told him it was nothing, because he would probably really think I was crazy if I told him.

He had told me about the story between Sam, Leah, and Emily, and it _was _kind of sad.

But it didn't faze me, no pun intended. I still hung out at La Push pretty much every day, even if she didn't want me there. Every time I would sit on Jakes lap, or give him a hug, or anything of the type, she would give me her signature death stare, but I didn't care, I was there to see Jacob, not her.

Other than all of the bitterness, I always thought that Leah was an okay person. She had her good days, and then her bad, like I, so who was I to judge?

So the pack, Emily, Billy, and I were all packed into Billy's small living room watching a Mariner's game on Saturday. I'd never found much interest in sports, but Jacob was explaining everything to me in my ear, and I found that once I understood baseball, it was actually pretty interesting.

We all heard the front porch door slam shut and all of our eyes went to the hallway, when Leah appeared in the doorway.

"So, when are we gonna get some leech-hunting action?! I'm bored to tears here!"

The room was silent in a heartbeat, and everybody's eyes were switching between Leah's confused face, and my flabbergasted one.

As the tears started welling up in my eyes, I looked around the room, to find that everybody was just staring at me now. I couldn't take it, I had to get out of there. I got up and shoved past Leah, slammed the front door behind me, and walked out to the end of the long gravel driveway, trying to catch my breath and analyze what had just happened.

There was a lot of yelling in the house. What they were saying, I couldn't be sure, not that I wanted to know. I could tell that most of the yelling was between Jacob and Leah, with Sam trying to intervene every now and then. Eventually I just tuned them out.

Jacob had a knack for knowing when I needed my space, and thankfully, he gave it to me, which was greatly appreciated from me.

I heard the slam of the front storm door, and I knew it would be Jacob so I didn't bother turning around to face him.

Or so I'd thought it was him.

I felt a hand on my shoulder that spun me around so fast I was momentarily dizzy.

I was face to face with Leah. Leah with her natural, woodsy beauty, and her signature murderous glare, looking me in the face. Definitely not Jake.

"Who do you think you are?" Leah screamed at me, and I flinched away from her.

Lamely, all I said was, "E- ….Excuse me?"

Every inch of her was shaking uncontrollably. I knew that at any minute she could phase and I would be done for.

"You heard me! I can't say ONE thing without everybody jumping down my goddamn THROAT. It's like I have to watch EVERY single thing I say, and all because YOU got screwed over by some filthy BLOOD-SUCKER. So he didn't want you. BIG. DEAL. It happened to me, & I dealt with it, so you sure as hell can. Now get over yourself and get on with your life!"

And with that, she phased and was gone. All that was left were here footprints on the ground, and shreds of what used to be clothing.

All the guys came rushing out, Jacob running to my side, and all the other guys going behind the house to get undressed and phase. They spread out in all different directions. Billy watched all of this from the porch.

Jacob was talking to me, but my brain wasn't really comprehending any words that came out of his mouth.

For those first few initial moments, both my mind and body were unaware to what was going on around me. It was like that numbness I had been searching for so many months ago had finally returned, and it was bitter sweet. This bliss only lasted for a few seconds, and then every emotion that had been hidden ever since I was with Jacob forced their way out, and I collapsed to the ground, a sobbing mess.

**Jacob:**

I watched my Bella storm out the door and storm outside, stopping at the end of the driveway. I didn't follow her because I knew at this point she just needed her space.

"What's wrong with _her_?" Leah asked with a slight smile playing on her lips. Her smile faded as she took a look around the room. I couldn't believe she had the _nerve._

In seconds I was in Leah's face.

"Are you STUPID or something?!" I yelled at her, fuming. "Why would you say something like that?"

"Oh come ON Jake, don't act like you don't say stuff like that all the time. What did I do?"

"Couldn't you keep your mouth shut, just this ONCE? You _knew_ she was over here, and you _knew_ not to say stuff like that around her."

"Am _I_ stupid? Really. You're in love with a girl who's using you. You're nothing but a _rebound_. You're so blind, Jacob Black. She's _clearly _still in love with him. You've seen for yourself what he's done to her. Do you really want to compete with that? Because if you want to, be my guest. But when the pack comes calling and you're with her, what're you going to do? Are you going to ignore us, your blood, your family, or are you going to leave her when she needs you. You think you're so different from her other guy. Are you really so different?"

"I would _never..._" I couldn't muster up any words to describe my love for her.

Sam chose then to intervene.

"Leah, I think you need to leave." He said it with the authority in his voice that nobody could ignore.

"You might want to get your priorities straight before you get her too involved." She walked out the door and slammed it so that everybody in the house jumped.

I turned to Sam, not having gotten everything out of my system.

"Did you even bother to _tell_ her?"

"Jake, yes. I did."

"I need to go see her," I said, heading for the door.

"No, you don't. Look at you, you're trembling all over. You might hurt her, and you'll never forgive yourself for it."

I just turned around and stared at him. How could he say such a thing like that? He knew what it was like to imprint. But then again, he also knew what it was like to hurt his imprint, even if you loved her unconditionally. Emily was proof of that. And he was right. He always was. If I was to hurt Bella, I could never, _ever_ forgive myself. "No, Sam. I have control enough for this."

That's when I heard the yelling coming from outside. I could see out the window that Leah was in Bella's face, and the look on her face was just plain scared. I had caught the conversation at the very end. Everybody's eyes traced my gaze outside just in time to see Leah faze and be off. Bella looked up at the house, not really seeing anything.

I was out of the house in a matter of seconds, and running to her side. Just before I got to her, she crumpled to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.

As I carried her into the house I saw the pack (all in wolf form, except for Sam) to split up and look for Leah.

"You're sure that you're okay here with her? You won't lose control?" I knew he only meant for the best, but it still angered me.

"Yeah," I said, "I got this. When you find Leah, I want to be the first to speak to her. Alone."

Sam did nothing but nod solemnly before running behind the house to get undressed and faze.

I took Bella inside and layed her down on my bed. She was clinging to me for dear life, and shivering.

I called my dad into the room and asked him to give Charlie an excuse as to why she'd be spending the night. I knew Charlie wouldn't have a problem with it, we just needed a good reason so that he wouldn't get suspicious. Charlie wasn't in the know, and for now, we wanted to keep him like that for as long as humanly possible.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning I woke up pretty early, around nine or so, and Bella was still out. She looked dead tired, but still peaceful. I layed there thinking for a while, daydreaming about moments Bella and I had together, and about Leah.

Why would Leah act like that. I understood that she _is _part of the pack, and that she hated those blood-suckers as much as I did. But she _knew _how Bella was sensitive to stuff like that. Sam and I told her the entire story. But, even though Bella had once been friends with them, did that give Leah any reason to hate her by association? I didn't think so, but my view on the matter wasn't exactly a fair one.

Bella stirred, waking me up from my daydreaming. When she opened her eyes, she stared at me for a moment, before she gasped and sat bolt upright.

"What about Charlie?! Where is he?! Does he know I'm here?! Oh, I bet he's just _freaking _out..." She was more mumbling this then really talking to me. She started to get out of bed, when I grabbed her arm, and she looked at me.

"Bella-"

"Where's Leah? Did they ever find her? Has Charlie come looking for me?"

"Bella, you-"

"Jacob, I _have_ to get home-"

"BELLA!"

She stopped and looked at me for a second, and then visibly relaxed. She practically melted back into my arms.

Taking a deep breath, she looked at me. There were a million questions in her eyes, but she just didn't have the energy to bring up what had happened yesterday.

She layed there silently for a few moments, just looking at me, until tears started welling up in her eyes.

I just gathered her into an awkward sort of hug and held her, until the sobs that wracked her body would be gone, and she'd calm down, and we would talk it out.

* * *

**Soo, that's it! I know you guys are waiting for a little bit of action, and it's coming soon, i promise! I just reaalllyy hope you guys like it. Review, comment, whatever it is you lovely people do!**


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